India has lot to offer to world, we propose to expand FTA: Israeli minister

New Delhi [India], April 18 (ANI): India has a lot to offer to the world and Israel will propose to expand the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with New Delhi, Israel’s Minister of Economy and Industry Nir Barkat said during the India Israel Business Forum organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Nir Barkat said that FTA between Israel and India will be discussed with the Indian ministers today.Pointing that India is on track to become the world’s third-largest economy, the minister said that the FTA should be in various sectors, including agro-tech and health tech.

“The FTA between Israel and India will be discussed with the Indian ministers today. The FTA should be in various areas including agro-tech and health tech. India’s economy is rising to be the third-largest in the world. What I see here is a huge mutual opportunity and we are here to exploit it,” Nir Barkat said.

“Look at the chip industry, Israel is very strong in the chip industry, it has a lot to offer. We should take a serious look at how to co-develop ideas, a lot of joint ventures are here,” he said while stressing on the need to push for semiconductors as these chips are found in practically every modern electrical appliance.

He said that Israel will focus on issues and business clusters. Nir Barkat said, “We are going to be focusing on issues and business clusters that we’re really good at that Israel has a competitive advantage, one of which I found that there’s interest here, which we call desert technologies to improve quality of life in deserts, managing water, creating water, saving water, creating energy from the sun from the wind in a distributed way and that tailors to deserts food production agrotech creating food from the sea using hydroponics.”

Nir Barkat said that India will soon become the third-largest economy in the world. He said that Israel sees a huge steep growth and India has a lot to offer to the world. He called the willingness of Indians to scale up the business and collaborate with the world “another great opportunity.”

“India is very soon becoming the third largest economy in the world. We see the huge steep growth that you have a lot to offer to the world. The fact that you Indian people are eager to grow and scale up the business and collaborate with the world is another great opportunity. What we need to do now is figure out the best way for our entrepreneurs who work with your entrepreneurs, for our small economy, to leverage your scale in huge economy, the size and scope of it and it’s a great match. We compete, we collaborate, we complement each other. We have a lot to offer and you certainly have a lot to offer to Israel,” Minister said.

Israeli minister said that 40 per cent of people in India are working in the agriculture sector.

Comparing India and Israel in agriculture sector, the minister said that 50 years back, 30 – 40 per cent of people were working in the agriculture field in Israel but currently “less than 5 per cent of people today are focusing on the agriculture sector in Israel”.

“We’re doing more agriculture by just using technology in a smart way. In India, once you scale quickly and adopt technology, that number will shrink dramatically in the next 20 years,” he said.

Israel’s minister said, “I am going to propose Indian Ministers to naturally expand the FTA. Focus on business development in a smart way, share knowledge and experience as much as possible.”