DPIIT ready to do roundtable meetings with Korean companies to resolve their issues: Ms Sumita Dawra

Sanjeev K Ahuja On Nov 21, 2022

NEW DELHI: Ms Sumita Dawra, Special Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India has assured the Republic of Korea that her department was ready to organise round table discussion with the representatives of Korean companies to address their issues in India.

The top commerce ministry bureaucrat said this recently while reacting to the concerns of the India-based Korean companies raised by the Ambassador of South Korea Chang Jae-bok during an event recently in New Delhi. These included tax, customs issues, and also the long-pending expansion of the scope of CEPA.

“We would do roundtable meetings with the Korean companies to resolve their problems. I have been meeting many investors such as Hyundai in Chennai where I visited their facility in Tamilnadu. They are settled down and established in India and for the last 20 years they have been doing business here. We regularly do roundtables with the investors to resolve their problems related to tax, and customs issues. Same we did with the Taiwanese businesses also in Tamilnadu and Karnataka, and resolved their local issues. We would be very happy to move on with the Korean businesses as well,” said Ms Sumita Dawra. She also spelt out a slew of reforms the Indian government, especially his ministry rolled out in last couple of years.

Jeong Dae-jin, Deputy Minister for Trade, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), Republic of Korea; Jeong Marn-ki, Executive Vice Chairman, KITA; and Amit Kumar, Ambassador of India to the Republic of Korea also joined this meeting virtually from Seoul.

When asked by Asian Community News (ACN) Network on the sidelines of the meeting what was the status of the expansion of terms of CEPA, Ms. Dawra declined to comment saying that this subject did not come under her jurisdiction.

Previously while quoting the feedback received from India-based Korean companies, Ambassador Chang Jae-bok had said that some of the Korean companies on the difficulties of doing business in India such as tax and customs issues, etc.

While indicating that there could be some resistance against foreign companies entering India and causing insecurity to the local companies, Ambassador said, “Korea used to hear the same kind of complaints from the US, and European companies, which invested in Korea. However, improving business environment for Korean companies is also beneficial for the Indian companies. Indian industries can get stronger only through competition with Korean companies. That’s what Korea wanted to gain when it pursued the Korea-US FTA agreement to fight fierce competition from big domestic industries.”

“In this context, I hope early conclusion of the negotiation between India and Korea to upgrade CEPA as well as rapid solution of the issues surrounding the Korean companies in India, which will be mutually beneficial for our two countries.

ACN Network