India hosts 6th India-China Strategic Economic Dialogue

India is hosting 6th India-China Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) in New Delhi. The three-day Dialogue will be held from 7-9 September 2019. Every year NITI Aayog (earlier Planning Commission) on Indian side and National Development and Reforms Commission (NDRC) on Chinese side lead SED Mechanism wherein a bilateral Dialogue is held annually alternately at capital cities of two countries i.e. in New Delhi and Beijing.

About 6th India-China Strategic Economic Dialogue

It will be chaired by Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog Rajiv Kumar and Chinese side will led by chairman, National Development and Reforms Commission (NDRC). Also, senior representatives from policy making, industry and academia will participate in dialogue from both sides.

The dialogue will comprise of round table meetings of Joint Working Groups (JWG) followed by technical site visits and closed door G2G meetings.

Focus Areas: SED will focus on collaboration between two countries on areas of Infrastructure, Energy, Resource Conservation, High-Tech, Pharmaceuticals and Policy coordination.

Background

India-China SED was established in December 2010 between erstwhile Planning Commission and National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China during the visit of then Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to India. Since then, the SED has served as an effective mechanism for enhancing bilateral practical cooperation.

Under the aegis of SED, senior representatives from both sides (India and China) come together to constructively deliberate on and share individual best practices and successfully identify sector-specific challenges as well as opportunities for enabling ease of doing business (EDB) and at the same time facilitating bilateral trade and investment flows.

At 2nd SED (held in November 2012)  at New Delhi, it was decided to constitute 5 standing Joint Working Groups (JWGs) on Policy Coordination, Infrastructure, Environment, Energy, and High Technology under SED for strengthening cooperation in these fields. Also a 6th Joint Working Group on Pharmaceuticals has also been constituted after 5^th SED, which was held in Beijing on 14 April 2018 (just before informal Wuhan Summit between PM Narendra Modi and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping).

Month: Current Affairs - September, 2019