In order to further enhance trade relations with Japan, India on Friday urged Japan to make more investments in its infrastructure, electronic hardware and other sectors.

Commerce & Industry Minister Anand Sharma invited Japanese companies to explore more business opportunities in India and enjoy benefits of mutual growth.

Mr. Sharma is on an official visit to Japan to participate in India Investment Roundtable meeting, organised by the commerce ministry and industry body CII.

World's fourth-largest steel producer, POSCO of South Korea has said that it welcomes the latest order by the Supreme Court of India, in which it said that the government will decide on giving preferential access to iron ore to the company.

New Delhi, April 22 : The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has offered to invest $2 billion on infrastructure development in India, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said Monday.

Sharma said the Gulf country made the proposal for investment during the first meeting of the India-UAE joint investment task force held in February this year.

"The issues relating to promotion and facilitation of investments between the two countries and the modalities to address issues associated with existing investments between the two countries were discussed," Sharma said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

The Ministry of Commerce & Industry on Thursday announced a number of concessions for various sectors to provide a much-needed boost to the country's exports.

In its final annual supplement to the five-year Foreign Trade Policy (2009-14), the government extended the Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme that allows exporters to import capital goods by paying zero duty.

Commerce & Industry Minister Anand Sharma announced that the zero duty EPCG benefit would now be available to all sectors.

The government in India has announced the new Foreign Trade Policy for 2013-14 aimed at promoting exports from the country to the global market.

Estimates showed that the total exports form the country fell 1.76 per cent to $300.57 billion in 2012-13 financial year compared to $304 billion in the previous year. In an effort to offer incentives to exporters to boost trade, the government has extended the zero duty Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme under the policy. The scheme allows duty free import of capital goods to all sectors.

Commerce & Industry Minister Anand Sharma on Tuesday made a strong pitch for a balanced package for the least developed as well as developing nations in the ministerial level discussions in the upcoming WTO meeting.

An official statement, released yesterday, stated that Mr. Sharma discussed the roadmap to the Ministerial meeting with key Ambassadors to WTO.

The statement said, "Sharma made a strong pitch for a balanced package for the Ministerial which has the interest of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and developing nations at its core."

India on Monday became a signatory to the Madrid Protocol for International Registration of Marks, a development that will enable Indian companies to register their trademarks in several countries by filing a single application.

Joining the Madrid Protocol on trademarks at the World Intellectual Property Organisation will allow Indian companies to register their trademarks in nearly 89 countries, including the European Union. Previously, different applications had to be submitted to register trademarks in different countries.

The government will announce a "pragmatic" Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) on April 18 in a bid to boost exports, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma announced.

Addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) AGM on Wednesday, Mr. Sharma said, "A forward looking pragmatic foreign trade policy will be announced on April 18."

Durban, March 26 : South African companies can play a major role in India's plans to pump $1 trillion over the next five years in infrastructure development, almost half of which is envisaged by the private sector, including firms from overseas, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma has said.

South African companies have respectable experience, expertise and technical skills in handling infrastructure development in emerging economies, said Sharma, who is here as part of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's delegation at the 5th BRICS Summit.

India's current account deficit or trade deficit will likely widen further to reach a record level of $193-196 billion this fiscal, Commerce & Industry Minister Anand Sharma said on Friday.

Speaking at the Board of Trade (BoT) meeting yesterday, Mr. Sharma said admitted that the country's exports might not be able to reach the previous year's level of $306 billion this year.

New Delhi, March 18 : India targets to boost trade with African countries to $100 billion by 2015 from nearly $65 billion registered last year, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said Monday.

The trade target has been revised upward in view of the better than expected economic engagements between the two regions.

Trade ministers of India and Africa at a meeting held in March 2012 had set a target of $90 billion trade by 2015.

India and Africa are working closely with each other to enhance bilateral cooperation and trade, Commerce & Industry Minister Anand Sharma said.

Addressing the CII-EXIM Bank meeting on India-Africa partnership yesterday, Mr. Sharma also said that Indian would establish educational institutions in the continent.

Speaking on the topic, Mr. Sharma announced, "India and Africa are engaged in different manner today then when they were few years ago. India is building 70 institutions in Africa together."

AirAsia's proposal to set up a low-fare airline in joint venture with Tata Sons and Arun Bhatia of Telestra Tradeplace Ltd was approved after a very careful scrutiny of the foreign direct policy, Commerce & Industry Minister Anand Sharma said.

On Wednesday, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approved the Malaysia-based budget airline AirAsia's proposal to launch a new airline in India by teaming up with the aforementioned partners.

New Delhi, Mar 6 : India and Portugal have agreed for an early conclusion of the India-EU Broad based Trade and Investment agreement (BTIA) negotiations.

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma in a meeting with Paulo Portas, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal here yesterday said that "intensive engagements on part of the two sides are a reflection of their desire to finalising a balanced trade agreement at the earliest.

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have said they are planning an initial investment of $2 billion in infrastructure projects in India.

The two countries reached the agreement at the first meeting of the India-UAE task force on investments, which was held in the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi today. India's Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said that UAE will provide support to the Indian authorities for establishing strategic oil reserves in India.

New Delhi, Feb 18 : Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has urged the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to take the lead in re-energizing the negotiations for concluding the India-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations which have been stalled for a while.

Mumbai, Feb 13 : Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma on Wednesday urged the developed nations to remain committed to open markets and zealously guard against protectionism.

Speaking at the 21st NASSCOM India Leadership Forum 2013 here, Sharma said, "I have in all my interactions with leaders of the developed world argued for freer and more open markets, which allow easier movements of professionals."

New Delhi, Jan 31 : A delegation of Jet Airways and Etihad Airlines of UAE met Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma here today.

The delegation, which included Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal and Etihad Airways President and CEO James Hogan, briefed Sharma about their plans in India in the wake of liberalization of FDI regime in the aviation sector.

Sharma on his part said ''we have put in place an enabling policy and any investment under the policy is welcome''.

Agra Jan 29 : South Asian countries need to learn from the best practices of other regional blocs such as NAFTA and ASEAN that have taken intra-regional trade to greater heights, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said here Tuesday.

NAFTA is the North American Free Trade Agreement and ASEAN is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

He said regional cooperation was a reality in all parts of the world and efforts should be made to remove all bottlenecks.

India's union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma has said today that the government will review the plans by South Korean steel major Posco to invest Rs. 52,000 crore in plants in the state of Odisha.

Sharma said that the government is committed to ensure that the project takes off smoothly. He also told the visiting South Korean Minister of Knowledge Economy Sukwoo Hong that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is monitoring the project.