Indian media highlight China-India economic ties

NEW DELHI - India media have highlighted trade and economic relations between India and China during their coverage of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's visit to the country from Sunday.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will meet CEOs from India and China during a business summit to be held in India's financial capital Mumbai on Tuesday.

The Times of India said on Tuesday that five of 73 Chinese corporations on the list of the Fortune 500 in oil, banking, telecom, mining and aviation sectors have come with the premier to India seeking business, while the majority of the companies which have come are engaged in manufacturing, power, telecom and mining.

The Indian Express said some 20 top industrialists from China and India attended a CEO forum in Delhi on Tuesday "to propel bilateral trade to $100 billion within two years".

Both the Chinese and Indian governments have expressed the will to attain the target during talks between Li and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on Monday.

The Hindu said that India and China signed on Monday a series of memorandums of understanding on pharmaceuticals, buffalo meat and fisheries apart from an agreement on feed and feed ingredients to narrow trade gap.

Indian officials and media have stressed the need to narrow the gap in bilateral trade with Indian incurring a deficit of some $40 billion out of a total of $67 billion.