Devanjana Mukherjee, Khabri Media
The opportunities for economic growth, job creation, and shared prosperity far outweigh the challenges, making the collaboration a strategic imperative for both India and the Nordic-Baltic nations.
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External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday sought investments from Nordic-Baltic countries in the development of ports, renewable energy, food processing and fisheries, saying India has put in place institutional frameworks for closer business-to-business cooperation. To subscribe please click tau.id/2iy6f and access our live channel.
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Addressing the India Nordic Baltic Business Conclave here, Jaishankar also said that India has opened embassies in Tallinn and Vilnius recently and plans to start an embassy in Latvia very soon. The Nordic Baltic Eight (NB8) is a regional cooperation format that includes Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden.
The NB8 is an innovation and technological powerhouse, while India, with its increasingly strong focus on technology, offers immense opportunities for partnerships. There is significant scope for future growth between the two geographies.
India has set up an ambitious target to set up renewable energy capacities of 450 gigawatts by 2030, lined up port-led development involving over 600 projects under the Sagarmala program, while the food processing sector has the potential to attract USD 33 billion over the next decade.
The minister said India’s combined trade in goods with the NB8 countries was around USD 7.3 billion in 2022-23, and the cumulative FDI received from Nordic countries since 2000 stood at USD 4.69 billion. More than 700 Nordic companies were present in India, and close to 150 Indian companies have their presence in that region.
18 nations and 19 major global companies have joined India’s leadership for industry transition with Sweden lead IT initiative, green strategic partnership with Denmark, digitalization and educational dialogue with Finland, and harnessing geothermal energy with Iceland.
With the Baltic nations, India has been conducting official level interactions and seeking to explore new avenues for stronger co-operation in cyberspace, e-governance, defense technology, startups, supply chain, logistics, and so on.
