Modi inks China deals worth $22 bn, begins Mongolia trip
PM pushes hard Make in India campaign among top CEOs
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took care of business on the final day of his China visit with the two countries signing $22-billion trade deals, while the PM pushed hard his flagship “Make in India” campaign among top CEOs and made a splash amid the Indian community in Shanghai.
Modi announced to Chinese companies “now India is ready for business” with an improved regulatory environment, as he urged them to embrace the opportunities in manufacturing, processing and infrastructure.
“We are very keen to develop the sectors where China is strong. We need your involvement. The scope and potential, the breadth and length of infrastructure and related developments is very huge in India,” Modi said during his address at the India-China Business Forum, titled: Working towards a Sustainable Economic Partnership.
The 21 business-to-business deals covered a wide range of sectors including industrial parks, ports and financing.
Officials said the figure of $22 billion included portions of the $20 billion of Chinese investment that was agreed during President Xi Jinping’s visit to India in September.
At the function, Indian software giant Infosys unveiled the master plan of its new Shanghai campus and ICICI Bank announced the inauguration of its first bank branch in China.
Though nagging disputes over the countries’ border and ChinaPakistan ties remain, Modi during the three-day trip courted Chinese business and investment to shore up his country’s economy while he also attempted to tackle India’s gaping trade deficit with its wealthier neighbour.
Addressing a 5,000-strong enthusiastic crowd of Indians in Shanghai, amid chants of “Modi, Modi”, the Prime Minister said India and China represent one third of humanity and together can be a force of good for the entire world.
“Have we ever recognised this strength? The times have changed and that is why China and India can resolve not only their own problems but also help the rest of the world,” he said in Hindi at the Expo Exhibition and Convention Centre.
Modi also hit out at the Congress-led Opposition back home for attacking him over his foreign visits, and said he was attempting to do in a year of his government what has been left undone for the past 30 years.
CAIRO: Gunmen killed two Egyptian judges and a prosecutor Saturday in the Sinai Peninsula, where security forces are battling an Islamist insurgency spearheaded by an Islamic State group affiliate, officials said.
The attack came hours after a court in Cairo sentenced ousted president Mohamed Morsi to death for his role in a mass jailbreak during the 2011 uprising.
The shooting in North Sinai’s provincial capital El-Arish also killed the driver of the car the judicial officials were in and wounded another prosecutor.
Police said the officials came under attack while being driven to a court hearing in El-Arish. Health ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar told AFP four people were killed in the attack. “Two judges, a prosecutor and the driver of the car were killed,” he said.