India-China bilateral trade in 2010 surpassed $60 billion target at $61.7 billion, driven by the surge in Indian imports of Chinese telecom and power generation machinery to aid the country's infrastructure expansion.Officials in Beijing said the two countries were on course to meet the new target of $100 billion for 2015, set during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabaos recent visit to New Delhi.
According to official preliminary figures released in Beijing, bilateral trade registered $1.7 billion more than the target mainly on strength of Indian imports.
Indian exports, mainly driven by cotton and iron ore to China amounted to $20.8 billion while Chinese exports to India totalled to $40.8 billion, virtually double that of Indias.
The ever increasing buoyancy, however, is also cause of concern to India as the trade imbalance amounted to $20 billion, reflecting higher imports by India than exports.
Commenting on the new trade figures, K Nagraj Naidu, First Secretary, Economic and Commerce at the Indian Embassy said while bilateral economic trade ties were on positive track, it is important for both the countries to realise greater cooperation.
"China has to understand the importance
to provide market access to India specially Indian products like IT and Pharmaceuticals", he told PTI.
India is keen awaiting China to open its markets for IT, Pharmaceuticals, Agro products and Engineering services, and President Wen during his visit to India last year said China would seriously address the trade gap.
According to Indian officials, majority of Indian exports included iron ore, cotton, yarn and cotton products, chemicals besides small machinery and pharma products.
The growth of Indian exports was less compared to 2008 when Indian exports totalled to over $23 billion.
The dip in Indian exports was mainly caused by drop in iron ore exports as China diversified to other countries finding market uncertain.
China's exports to India on the other hand surged as the Country is cashing on the massive infrastructure modernisation currently under going in India.
Telecom and power equipment constituted the bulk of the Chinese exports to India.
