Thaindian News

Bangalore, Sep 6 (IANS) Poland Monday invited Indian industry to invest in the country with a slew of incentives for setting up operations in manufacturing and the services sectors.

“Being strategically located in the heart of Europe, Poland offers ideal investment opportunity to Indian entrepreneurs for setting up subsidiaries or explore partnerships in diverse sectors, with access to European and global markets,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk told captains of the Indian industry here.

Leading a high-profile delegation as the first non-Communist Polish premier, Tusk said he decided to begin his three-day state visit to India from Bangalore to strengthen the bilateral relations through business and collaborations.

“As India’s tech hub, Bangalore is renowned the world over for its domain expertise in software, science and aerospace. Poland has been the preferred choice of Indian IT bellwethers TCS, Infosys and Wipro to locate their outsourcing operations,” Tusk said at the Polish-Indian Investment Forum.

Noting that Poland and India were among the few nations that remained resilient and grew their economy during the worst global recession in 2009, he said the business environment was conducive to promote investments and joint ventures in both the countries.

Poland’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 1.8 percent in 2009 and 5.8 percent in 2008, while the rest of Europe, including Britain and the US, posted negative growth during the recession period.

Recalling the historical and cultural ties between the two countries, Tusk said the freedom struggle in India through the non-violent movement of its Mahatma Gandhi inspired the Solidarity movement in Poland during the eighties to achieve democratic freedom from decades of communist rule.

“India is envy of the world today for its contributions through democratic process. Its impressive achievements in all spheres of growth, especially economy, science, technology, space and industry is an inspiration for Poland, which is trying to transform into a democratic and progressive country in the new world order,” Tusk said in his address.

Though Tusk was two hours behind schedule for the interactive session between the Indian and Polish business leaders, he remained to witness the signing of an agreement between the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency.

Tusk also called on Karnataka Governor H.R. Bharadwaj before leaving for New Delhi for his official engagements with the Indian government Tuesday.

–

fb/srj