‘Opportunities for India-Denmark collab will expand significantly’: India’s first Danish Chamber of Commerce to come up in Delhi soon
At a time of global uncertainty, partnerships between like-minded countries are increasingly important, said the chamber's chairman as the move comes just months after the signing of the India-European Union free trade agreement
Just months after the signing of the India-European Union free trade agreement, Denmark has announced the establishment of the first Danish Chamber of Commerce in India. The initiative, announced in New Delhi on Wednesday, aims to support Danish companies operating in India or those considering business opportunities here.
Danish companies already have a strong footprint in India with more than 225 subsidiaries employing over a lakh people, said Ambassador Rasmus Kristensen at the launch reception. “Therefore, it is highly pertinent that, for the first time, a Danish Chamber of Commerce in India was officially launched in Delhi,” he said in a post on X.
Mads Schlosser, Director of the Indian Danish Chamber of Commerce, said, “India-Denmark trade relations go back more than 400 years. Today, the relationship is at a new height, and we see an increasing interest from Danish companies in engaging with the Indian market. With the India-EU FTA, opportunities for collaboration will expand significantly.”
Søren Holm Johansen, Chairman of the chamber, said, “At a time of global uncertainty, partnerships between like-minded countries are increasingly important. India and Denmark share a strong commitment to open markets, sustainability, and rules-based cooperation and order.”
Explained
Trade talk
As per Denmark statistics, the total volume of bilateral trade in goods and services between India and Denmark is around $7.8 billion in 2024. The major export items from India to Denmark are textiles, vehicles and components, metal goods, iron and steel, leather, and travel goods. Major Danish exports to India include pharma products, power-generating machinery, industrial machinery, metal waste and ore, and organic chemicals.
Schlosser says the plan for this was afoot even before the FTA was signed earlier this year. However, he said they will now also prioritise the “sticking issues” that came up for discussions during FTA negotiations. “We will prioritise those that are most relevant to the Danish businesses. There are very high level things that were left out of the agreement for those same reasons. We will do our best to address those things,” he added.
On being asked about the bilateral trade ties and India-EU ties in the wake of the current geopolitical situation, and with the tariff wars unleashed by the US, Johansen said, “What we’ve seen in the last few years geopolitically is that old relationships are struggling and new ones are being built. And the India-EU FTA has a very concrete business, opportunities and tariff reductions. Moving forward that is the belief and this is not something that will go away in a year, two years, right? Something that’s meant to stay.”
The chamber has been established in collaboration with the Royal Danish Embassy in Delhi and the Confederation of Danish Industry, embassy officials said.
Divya A reports on travel, tourism, culture and social issues - not necessarily in that order - for The Indian Express. She's been a journalist for over a decade now, working with Khaleej Times and The Times of India, before settling down at Express. Besides writing/ editing news reports, she indulges her pen to write short stories. As Sanskriti Prabha Dutt Fellow for Excellence in Journalism, she is researching on the lives of the children of sex workers in India. ... Read More