Indian firms away from CIIE, as other foreign companies eye deals

Even as more than 3,000 global businesses from over 120 countries and regions are keenly showcasing their products and services at the China International Import Expo (CIIE) and eying potential business deals, no Indian firm is listed as participant in the world's largest fair that focuses on imports.

India's absence from the event kicked off on Thursday, for unclear reasons, also contrasts with robust growth in China-India bilateral trade this year, a trend that is gradually irresistible for the South Asian economy despite its growing political hostility toward China, experts said.

The number of Indian companies that attend the CIIE has been decreasing progressively in recent years and dropped to zero at this year's CIIE, as per an official catalog of participants for the event.

The catalog of 4th CIIE exhibitors displayed at the exhibition halls showed that no Indian company is listed. A search for Indian exhibitors in the expo's digital catalogue, presented on the CIIEs' official website, also showed no results. At the second CIIE, India was one of the 15 guest-of-honor countries. The Global Times then saw around 10 small Indian pharmaceutical companies displaying their products at one of the expo venues. The booths were also crowded with visitors who asked about those products.

Last year, as per a report, three Indian companies were at the CIIE, one of which was a manufacturer of gift products.

While lingering tensions between the two countries might leave a trail of clues, there are no clear answers to India's shrinking profile at the major import expo, observers said.

Border disputes and New Delhi's intention to follow in the US' footsteps could by no means suppress India's reliance on a variety of Chinese goods such as auto parts and various small commodities, Wang Dehua, a senior South Asian affairs expert in Shanghai, said in a report.

In the first three quarters of 2021, China's trade with India soared 49.3 percent to $903.75 billion, as per Chinese customs data.

The strong reading is believed to have paved the way for bilateral trade to top $100 billion for the first time, accomplishing a target the two countries set in 2010.

For the whole of the coronavirus-hit 2020, bilateral trade fell 5.6 percent to $87.59 billion, with China's exports to India down 10.8 percent to $66.73 billion and its imports from India up 16 percent to $20.86 billion.

Describing the upward trend in bilateral trade as "irresistible," Wang said that India should evade stirring up trouble and instead elects to shelve disputes and join China in the push for global trade prosperity through the likes of the CIIE.

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