Jan. 7 – Spain, a colorful, hot country on the Mediterranean coast increased investments into India five fold last year.
"Spanish investment in India in the first three quarters of 2008 calender year was USD 158 million (or 114 million euros). This had increased by 500 per cent from the previous year," Chief Executive Officer of Interes 'Invest in Spain', Javier Sanz told the Economic Times.
The Second largest country in Western Europe, Spain has a strong industrial base and predominatly invested in the automotive and infrastructure sectors in India. One of the largest Indo-Spanish project till date is the 22-kilometre, 670 million euros Delhi metro project from the railway station to the airport – a joint venture between Spain's Caf (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles SA) and India's Reliance.
As Spain grows from being the eighth largest global economy and fifth largest investor, its interested in exporting heterogeneous goods and services from several sectors including renewable energies and environment, desalinisation, machinery, transport infrastructure, architecture and engineering design, biotechnology, aerospace, tourism and finance to India. Spain is looking at India as a gateway into the South-east Asian region.
Similarly, India has shown interest in the ICT, renewable energy, biotechnology, aerospace and logistics sectors. Indian investment into Spain has totalled 10.3 million euros, with the Spanish government hoping for a further growth in trade in the coming years.
Bilateral commercial relations between India and Spain have an enormous potential. For the period 1997-2007 the bilateral trade grew by 337 per cent, reaching 2,929.4 millionn Euros in 2007.
