The Finance Minister Shri P. Chidambaram, who is currently on a visit to Norway, met the Norwegian Finance Minister, Ms. Kristin Halvorsen. During the meeting the two Ministers acknowledged that the bilateral trade between India and Norway is below par its true potential and discussed various measures to improve the bilateral trade and investment.
In this regard, the Finance Minister expressed willingness of the Government of India to set up a Joint Working Group on trade and investment. He also expressed hope that the Joint Study group set up to examine the possibilities of trade and investment between India and EFTA of which Norway is also a member, shall be able to submit the final report next month.
He also conveyed the Indian Government's willingness to re-negotiate the Double Tax Avoidance Agreement, which was signed in 1986. Shri Chidambaram also welcomed the interest shown by the banks from both sides in opening up the branches in each other country. Shri Chidambaram also sought Norway's support in India getting the Observer status in the Financial Action Task Force.
During the meeting, the two ministers discussed various subjects of global importance and of bilateral relevance, including Global economic trends, impact of rising oil prices on global economy, Climate Change issues, bilateral trade and investment matters, impact of sub-prime crisis on India, possibilities of Norwegian Pension fund's investment in India.
On climatechange issue, Shri Chidambaram informed that India's per capita emission of GHG is much lower than the global average and stated that the economic growth should be decoupled from the GHG emission.
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