India, Switzerland Strengthen Ties, Sign Fiscal Agreement .

BERN, SWITZERLAND – Indian President Pratibha Devisingh Patil’s two-day visit to Switzerland that began Monday has already resulted in a number of initiatives, including a request by India for Switzerland’s support for an Indian seat on the UN Security Council as well as a fiscal agreement, and 11 new joint scientific research programmes.

Switzerland is the seventh most important importer of Indian goods and services, and trade between the two countries is CHF3.6 billion, with a 180 percent increase in the past decade. The trade surplus is CHF1.6b in Switzerland’s favour. Swiss exports to India rose by 21 percent in the first six months of 2011 while Indian exports to Switzerland rose by 31 percent.

Swiss direct investment in India in 2009, says the Swiss National Bank, was CHF3.3b.

The number of Indian tourists in Switzerland in 2009 rose by 21 percent.

Patil praised, to the Swiss Parliament Monday 3 October, Switzerland’s strength as a leading democracy and as a world champion of  innovative alternative energy technologies. The Swiss Foreign Affairs Department noted that “India is one of Switzerland’s principal partners in Asia. Bilateral and political contacts between the two countries are under constant development. Trade is on the increase, as is scientific cooperation. ‘Our bilateral relations date back to the time of Indian independence and have developed steadily ever since. These relations are excellent, fruitful and friendly’” Micheline Calmy-Rey noted in an address delivered in parliament.

Bern points out in a press release covering the visit that India is one of Switzerland’s principal partners in Asia. “Our bilateral relations date back to the time of Indian independence and have developed steadily ever since. These relations are excellent, fruitful and friendly”.  Calmy-Rey told parliament Monday.

The fiscal agreement involved both countries’ finance ministers signing “a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between the two countries on financial matters” according to Bern. The agreement provides a framework for working together, especially through international financial bodies: “to coordinate their positions and work together within organizations and international forums to develop their cooperation in terms of policies and financial market regulation and to strengthen their diagnostic capabilities regarding international macroeconomic developments”, the governments said late Monday.

The new agreement follows a double taxation agreement signed by the two countries in 2010.

India until the 1980s received more Swiss aid than any other country. Switzerland was the first country to sig a friendship treaty with the  new Indian government in 1948.

Source : genevalunch.com