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From defence to loans, China eyes slew of deals during Li Keqiang's visit

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From defence to loans, China eyes slew of deals during Li Keqiang's visit

BEIJING: China is making a major shift towards financial diplomacy with India compared to its earlier focus on winning construction contracts and selling heavy equipment. This is revealed in the composition of the business delegation accompanying Chinese premier Li Keqiang, who arrives in New Delhi on Sunday.

The composition of the team suggests that Beijing is no more shy about discussing sensitive deals covering defence and maritime fields with India. It also has two executives from the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, and one from the China Harbour Engineering Company Group.

The business delegation includes a dozen financial executives including seven from the powerful China Development Bank Corp (CDC) and two from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. Li's goals during the three-day tour include tapping the Indian market, persuading New Delhi to permit currency settlements in Yuan, and venture into sensitive areas like defence deals and port construction, sources said. He will use China's financial muscle and India's need for over $1 trillion for infrastructure development. A major player will be CDC chairman Hu Huaibang, clearly the most influential businessman in the group, who has steered his bank into major international contracts including the $1.9 billion loan deal with Reliance Communications. CDC had a loan outstanding worth $225 billion distributed in foreign countries by 2012 end.

China will continue to focus on selling more equipment to the Indian electricity sector. Heads of two major power equipment makers, Xu Jianguo of Shanghai Electric Company and Wang Lujun, chairman of Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation, are in the group.

India is also keen to encourage the trend despite fears that China would eventually control the supply of spare parts, which can make Indian industry heavily dependent on it in future. Asked about this fear, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid said in Beijing recently: "We have not heard of such an issue. If someone brings it to our notice, we will certainly look into it".

Telecom majors Huawei and ZTE are sending their MD and CEO, respectively. Li is likely to seek a level-playing field for Chinese telcos in bidding for Indian equipment contracts at a time when they are facing heavy weather in Europe and the US. The Chinese government is trying to convince the world that it is not subsidizing the production of telecom equipment in order to help local companies cut costs.

From defence to loans, China eyes slew of deals during Li Keqiang's visit - The Times of India
 
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