Business Summit will take India-France relationship to greater heights: Piyush Goyal
Apr 11, 2023
New Delhi [India], April 11 : Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal, ahead of the India-France Business Summit which commenced earlier on Tuesday, said the enthusiasm among participants was pretty high and it would help take the relationship between the two countries to greater heights.
"You can imagine the enthusiasm in France about the India-France business summit, that we had to stop the registration for this summit. This is actually a symbol of the strength of 140 crore Indians of the country, and because of the popularity and credibility of Prime Minister Narendra Modi world is looking towards India," Goyal told ANI.
During the last 25 years, he said the relationship between the partner two countries has been strong in terms of technology, investment, business, and cultural ties.
"You can imagine the enthusiasm in France about the India-France business summit, that we had to stop the registration for this summit," Goyal said.
In 2023, India and France completed 25 years as strategic partners.
"After Pokhran's nuclear test in 1998, France was the only country that supported India. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee came here and a strategic partnership was launched. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken that partnership to new heights," he added.
Speaking about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Goyal said the whole today believes PM Modi and considers him a problem solver.
"If the world has so much faith in India, our partnership with the world will also increase in trade and investment," Goyal added.
India's total exports crossed USD 750 billion in 2022-23, the highest ever by the country.
In the past six-to-seven years, India's exports have risen by about 75 per cent, as compared to 28 per cent at the global level.
"In just 2 years, when Prime Minister Modi gave this call to the exporters of India in 2021 that we have to increase trade at a fast pace, then in 2 years we had increased our trade from USD 500 billion to USD 765 billion dollars which is more than one and a half times in just 2 years," Goyal added.
Goyal, while unveiling Foreign Trade Policy 2023 recently, expressed confidence that exports would touch USD 2 trillion by 2030.
"Now we have set a target that by 2030, we have to increase it three times to 2 trillion dollars in the next 7 years, it is a very ambitious target and keeping in mind the collective strength of 140 crore people in India, any target can be achieved in India," Goyal said.
