H.E Mr. Piyush Goyal, Minister for Railways, Commerce and Industry, Government of India returned to New Delhi after a two day visit from 28th February 2020 and was seen off today at Paro airport by H.E Lyonpo Loknath Sharma, Minister for Economic Affairs. The Indian minister was in the country on the invitation by his counterpart for the Bhutan-India Start-Up Summit that took place on 29th February 2020 and was a huge success providing opportunity for our start-ups and entrepreneurs. The visiting minister was accompanied with a 13-member high-profile business delegation led by the Chairman of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII)- Mr. Vikram Kirolskar. The CII delegation of senior executives was one of its largest for an overseas visit.
The two ministers met on a one to one session on 28th February to discuss a range of trade related issues. The meeting between the ministers was highly successful with both sides reconfirming commitment to building strong economic ties. And agreed to designate and notify new entry and exit points at Jogighopa, Pandu and Agartala to facilitate trade between Bhutan and Bangladesh besides expediting the signing of the MoU between the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and Bhutan Agriculture and Food Regulatory Authority to facilitate the export of agricultural produce between the two countries. Supporting Bhutanese agriculture produce and cottage and small industries’ products by linking to large retail chains in India was another initiative. The meeting also discussed the establishment of railway links for which an officer from Indian railways is visiting the proposed site currently.
The commerce minister and the business delegation from India also committed to long term engagement with Bhutan, and interacted with the private sector and startups in Bhutan over their two days stay. The issues faced by Bhutanese exporters and manufacturers was also discussed and arrangement made for speedy assistance to resolve those issues. Befitting the Bhutan-India Start-up Summit, the business delegation included Mr. Ritesh Agrawal, Founder and CEO of OYO and at 26 years old the world’s youngest billionaire.
During the meeting, H.E Mr. Piyush Goyal assured the Royal Government of the commitment of the Government of India towards Bhutan’s development and facilitation of trade between the two countries. His government announced number of assistance and support for start-ups and entrepreneurs including capacity building and training in packaging which is still a challenge for our entrepreneurs.