India and China discuss bilateral investment protection agreement

With Indian and Chinese leadership deciding to tap the full potential of trade and economic cooperation, efforts are on to sign a bilateral investment protection agreement that would further step up business links and help reach the targeted $10-billion trade figure by 2005. Sources said that both sides are working on the investment protection agreement.

The two sticking points are national treatment of investment and repatriation of profits. While India has signed several such investment protection agreements, the language of these agreements differed considerably with those signed by China with other countries. “Now there is an attempt to formulate something that would be mutually satisfactory,” the source further added. While welcoming Chinese investments to India, Vajpayee and Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao had decided to form a joint study group to review existing cooperation and to draw up a plan for the development of a multi-faceted economic interaction between the two countries.