Press Advisories

18. 1. 201919:54

In India the Prime Minister attended a global summit and held talks with the Indian Prime Minister

On the fifth day of his Asia trip, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš visited India. On Friday, 18 January, he attended the Vibrant Gujarat Summit, where he talked primarily about the possibilities of economic cooperation. He had lunch with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Prime Ministers of Denmark and Malta. He spoke with the Indian Prime Minister about the values that unite both countries and mentioned the plan to promote mutual relations to a strategic level. He had a speech at a business seminar and in the evening the Prime Minister and the Minister of Industry and Trade Marta Nováková moved to Puné.

Andrej Babiš started the fifth day of his trip by attending the investment-focused Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit. He praised India as one of the world’s largest economies and said that the Czech Republic would like to help the country on its way to an efficient market economy and strengthen mutual industrial cooperation. He also highlighted that India is one of the largest markets for the Czech defence industry, where Czech military exports amount to more than USD 37 million a year.

“Indian people are familiar with what the Czechs are good at – they know and recognize especially our engineering industry, they also remember the Baťa factory in Calcutta in the 1930s. For example, Škoda vehicles are so popular in India that Volkswagen has tasked Škoda Auto with the coordination of all of the Group’s activities in India. Given that the whole world is facing new economic challenges, we have informed our partners that Czech companies are able to offer solutions for the 21st century”, said Prime Minister Babiš at the summit.

Then the Czech Prime Minister had lunch with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Prime Ministers of Denmark and Malta. During the subsequent bilateral talks with Prime Minister Modi, they talked mainly about business opportunities and also about the plan to promote relations between the two countries to a higher, strategic level.

“Prime Minister Modi is an exceptional personality, he had a great speech, he is a natural-born politician, his speech was exciting. He founded this business summit with the strategyproduce in India, transfer technology to India”. The bilateral talks were very concrete. He himself talked about the defence industry that India is interested in. We offer passive radars and we talked about Škoda Auto, our biggest investor. Tomorrow we are opening a hi-tech centre, Škoda wants to invest up to a billion euros. The cars look great, and they are made here in India, which is the strategy of Škoda to use India to expand production and then ship to Asian markets”, said the prime minister after the talks.

As part of the global summit, Andrej Babiš officially opened the Czech exhibition stand and, together with the Minister of Industry and Trade Martina Nováková, spoke at a business seminar.

“Business and economic cooperation has always played a key role in our extraordinary, more than 70-year-long journey since the establishment of official diplomatic relations. Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises play an increasingly important role in economic growth, employment and innovation in both countries. I am pleased to say that these entrepreneurs have become one of the driving forces behind our bilateral economic relations and that an increasing number of them are trying to cooperate. I instruct my government to do its utmost to encourage the mutual involvement of SMEs in both countries. The establishment of the Czech business incubator in Bangalore is just the beginning of this journey”, said the Prime Minister at the seminar.

At the end of the day, Andrej Babiš attended a dinner held by the Gujarat state minister Vijay Rupani. Also present at the table were Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. In the evening, the prime minister flew to the eighth largest Indian city of Pune, where he will continue his Asia trip.