NEWS

Prime Minister Pahor continues his state visit to India in Bangalore

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, continues his four-day state visit to the Republic of India. Yesterday evening, Prime Minister Pahor and his delegation were received by the Prime Minister of the Republic of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, and his ministers; today, the Slovenian delegation will visit India's high-tech capital, Bangalore.

    

The Indian Prime Minister hosted a reception yesterday evening; during the plenary talks, he highlighted the excellent relations between the two countries and pointed to several opportunities for further enhancing political and economic ties. At Prime Minister Singh's invitation, the plenary talks were attended by his key ministers, namely: the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Transport, the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, the Minister of International Economic Relations, the Minister of Labour and Health and the State Minister for External Affairs. The Indian Prime Minister congratulated Prime Minister Pahor on the twentieth anniversary of Slovenia's independence, to be celebrated on 25 June, and commended Slovenia's achievements to date. He also stressed the importance of the agreements and memoranda signed during the state visit.

    

The Slovenian and Indian Prime Ministers undertook to double trade in goods and strengthen cooperation between the two countries in the automotive industry, science and research, tourism and in the field of renewable energy. With a view to fulfilling this commitment, a joint intergovernmental economic commission meeting will be organised in India in autumn; in September, a sizeable economic delegation of Indian businessmen will pay a visit to Slovenia. For the purpose of further strengthening political dialogue and mutual support in multilateral organisations, Indian Prime Minister Singh also underlined the special importance of the activities carried out by the ICPE, an international organisation headquartered in Ljubljana, with India and Slovenia as its most active members. The two leaders touched upon the need to reorganise the United Nations and exchanged views on the consequences of the global economic crisis. They concluded the meeting by discussing the situation in the Middle East and assessing the situation in North Africa.

  

Prime Ministers Pahor and Singh attended the signing of memoranda and an agreement between the two countries, namely an agreement on the mutual promotion and protection of investments between the Government of the Republic of Slovenia and the Government of the Republic of India; a Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Nova Gorica and the Indian Institute of Science; and a Memorandum of Understanding between the Slovenian Institute for Standardisation and the Indian Institute for Standardisation.

   

During the course of the state visit, Prime Minister Pahor and his delegation paid an early morning visit to the Taj Mahal, where Mr Pahor signed the visitors' book; he continued his official programme in Bangalore where he met a group of Indian businessmen for a working lunch. They discussed ways for Slovenian companies to succeed in India, particularly in Bangalore; the Indian businessmen showed most interest in engineering services, renewable energy and tailor-made construction equipment and furniture. The Indian businessmen highlighted the importance of Slovenia as a tourist destination and were strongly interested in investments in tourism infrastructure, particularly in winter tourism.

   

In the afternoon, Prime Minister Pahor opened the Slovenian-Indian Business Conference and addressed the audience of businessmen from Slovenia and Bangalore present. Outside the main Bangalore conference, the Slovenian Prime Minister attended the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation between the companies, Gostol-Gopan and CS Aerotherm.

   

Prime Minister Pahor will hold a separate meeting with the Slovenian managers; his visit will continue with a meeting and talks with the Governor of Karnataka, Hansraj Bhardwaj. The Prime Minister and the Governor will discuss economic ties between the two countries.