Chinese companies asked to import more from India

New Delhi, March 28 (IANS) Ahead of a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese President Hu Jintao, China Wednesday allayed India's apprehensions over the widening trade deficit and stressed that Beijing is encouraging Chinese companies to import more from India.

"The Chinese government has been encouraging its companies to import more from India. The government is also giving subsidies to Chinese companies to enhance imports from India," Chen Yuan, chairman of the board of governors of the state-controlled China Development Bank (CDB), said here.

He was responding to a question on India's mounting concerns over the widening trade imbalance, heavily in China's favour.

Trade imbalance is one of the key issues that is expected to figure in bilateral talks between Manmohan Singh and Hu Thursday on the sidelines of the BRICS summit.

After their talks, Manmohan Singh and Hu are expected to declare 2012 the year of India-China friendship and unveil some initiatives for bolstering cultural exchanges and people-to-people contacts.

CDB, which is under the jurisdiction of the State Council, is one of the three policy banks of China, primarily responsible for raising funding for large infrastructure projects.

According to Chen, bilateral trade in 2011 reached $73.9 billion last year. Trade surplus in China's favour is estimated to be over $25 billion.

"Our trade surplus is a reflection of the demand and supply dynamics," he told reporters.

Chen also called for closer coordination among BRICS countries over trade policies that reflect the interests of developing countries.