CHENNAI, FEB 1: India and Sweden should strengthen cooperation, especially on environment and environment technology and act together for global action on climate change, said Maud Olofsson, deputy prime minister & minister for enterprise and energy, Sweden. There is a need for a new international agreement on environment in 2009, to be able to follow-up on Kyoto protocol in 2012, she added.
Delivering the keynote address at the India - Sweden Business Forum, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here on Thursday, Olofsson said that Indo-Sweden memorandum of understanding on science and technology already has proved successful that trade between the two countries has increased by 41% in 2006. "Relations with India is a top priority for Sweden. We see growing cooperation in a number of fields like ICT, biotech and environment," she said.
With global warming becoming a big threat to humanity, Olofsson called for a 'Triple Helix' model to combat the alarming situation. "Political cooperation on a global basis, world class research and business-oriented research is key to fight climate change," she said elaborating on the model.
The deputy prime minister was optimistic that it is possible to meet the global environmental challenges such as climate change while achieving economic growth. On globalisation, she said that the Swedish example shows that in the long run competitiveness, growth and welfare are linked positively to openness to global markets. "This is true - not just in terms of finding new markets for business, but just as importantly for strengthening the competition on our own markets," she added.
In his inaugural address, Dayanidhi Maran, Union minister of communications & information technology, said that India is a very different market and every state is different with respect to consumer demands and consumption patterns. "We are a population of 1.1 billion and our GDP is growing at 8.9%. We are aspiring for more growth. Every Indian would like to own a car," he said.
