New Delhi, Nov 27 (IANS) Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday informed of a meeting with Helene Budliger Artieda, State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Switzerland, where they discussed investment opportunities for the pharmaceutical sector.

Artieda is on a visit to India along with a pharma delegation from Switzerland.

“Co-chaired a meeting with SECO_StateSec Helene Budliger Artieda with Swiss pharma and biotech companies. Discussions focused on avenues of further cooperation in R&D and expanding investment opportunities for Swiss pharma companies to leverage India’s robust healthcare sector,” Goyal shared in a post on social media platform X.

“Also, discussed the progress made under the India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) with an aim to further enhance collaboration across key sectors for mutual growth,” he added.

In a post on X, Artieda also shared holding a “constructive exchange with Secretary of Finance Anuradha Thakur on accelerating negotiations towards a Bilateral Investment Treaty”.

“A crucial agreement for our investors!” Artieda said.

Welcoming Artieda, Ambassador of Switzerland to India, Maya Tissafi shared that the Swiss Secretary’s meeting with Goyal aims to strengthen “the regulatory framework and deepening cooperation”. These are key for new investments and to set TEPA fully in motion,” she added on X.

India has been working on TEPA with EFTA countries comprising Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein. The India-EFTA TEPA came into effect on October 1.

The agreement was signed on the 10th of March last year in New Delhi. EFTA is an important regional group with several growing opportunities for enhancing international trade in goods and services.

The agreement focuses on market access related to goods, trade facilitation, investment promotion, market access to services, intellectual property rights, trade, and sustainable development.

Under it, EFTA’s market access covers 100 percent of non-agricultural products and tariff concessions on Processed Agricultural Products. The agreement also offers a binding commitment of 100 billion US dollars in investment in India in the next 15 years. It will also facilitate the generation of one million direct jobs through such investment.

The TEPA will empower India’s exporters by providing access to specialised inputs and creating a conducive trade and investment environment. This would boost exports of Indian made goods as well as provide opportunities for the services sector to access more markets.

According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, a dedicated EFTA Desk has also been operational since February this year, which is a single-window mechanism for investment facilitation to support EFTA businesses in investing, expanding, and establishing operations in India.

–IANS

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