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India, China launch 'tourism-2007'
New Delhi: India and China have launched "India-China year of friendship through tourism-2007". External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Chinese counterpart Le Zhoaxing launched it jointly here yesterday, terming the current level of tourism exchange between the two countries as insignificant Zhoaxing stressed on the need for both sides to "redouble efforts" to boost tourism. "Last year alone, 45000 Chinese and Indians exchanged visits. This is good.
However
at the same time, this is still a pretty small number compared with our
total population of 2.4 billion. So, our two sides need should really
redouble efforts to increase our exchanges," Zhoaxing said. To boost cultural
and business between the two countries, New Delhi and Beijing would open
consulates in Kolkata and in Guangzhou in China's Guangdong province.
"We have established institutional mechanism for the cooperation in the
areas of agriculture, finance, credit, defence, science and technology,
energy and education. Soon, we are going to increase the diplomatic presence
in each others countries by opening consulate at Guangzhou and Kolkata,"
Mukherjee said. Zhaoxing is on a four-day trip to New Delhi to discuss
bilateral and strategic relations between the giant Asian rivals. Earlier,
the Foreign Ministers agreed on a hotline between the two countries to
speed up diplomatic communications. Helped by growing trade links, ties
between the Asian powers have improved in the last few years, and they
have been pushing economic ties despite their border dispute. A visit
by Chinese President Hu Jintao to India in November focused on boosting
two-way trade, expected to double to 40 billion dollar by 2010.
-Feb 15, 2007
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