New Delhi, Apr 3 (KNN) A protocol dealing with cooperation in the field of small and medium entrepreneurship (SMEs) has been signed between India and Ukraine, according to an official release.

The protocol has been signed in the 4th meeting of India-Ukraine Working Group on Trade and Economic Cooperation (IU-WGTEC), under the India-Ukraine Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical, Industrial and Cultural Cooperation here.

The protocol also deals with review of trade, cooperation in the field of technical regulation (standardization, metrology, certification, conformity assessment), public-private partnership (PPP) and investment, agriculture, facilitating the access of Ukrainian food products to the market of India, energy sector, finance, granting Ukraine market economy status within the framework of anti-dumping investigations,  and banking and cooperation in tourism.

Indian Side informed Ukrainian Side regarding the National Small Industries Corporation’s (NSIC) activities and requested Ukrainian Side for identifying a nodal agency which can cooperate with NSIC in Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector.

The fields that needs to be identified on a mutually agreed terms are implementation of technology incubation centre in Ukraine for the development of micro and small enterprises, facilitation in creating enterprise to enterprise cooperation, exchange of business delegations and consultancy in development of SMEs in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Side informed regarding the approval by the  Government of the Strategy for the development of Small and Medium businesses for the period up to 2020.

Both Sides agreed that trade was far below the potential and there was a need to step up their cooperation to enlarge the trade basket and increase the bilateral trade and investment.

There is trade deficit on the part of Indian Side and both Sides agreed to find out the modalities to reduce it further.

India and Ukraine have identified potential sectors where both Sides   could engage in bilateral trade since presently the share of trade between both Sides is quite low as compared to total trade made with the rest of the World. Both

Sides agreed to share the list of products which they would like to trade.

Indian side informed about various Export Promotion Councils and other export related institutions from where one can get the details of exporters /importers and agreed to share the list of such institutions.

Both Sides agreed to share official information about identifying a single window cell in their respective countries for clarifying the queries of the exporters and in supporting them in identifying the suitable buyers/sellers.

Indian Side expressed happiness on the participation of Ukrainian Side in Partnership Summit 2019.

Cooperation in leather, tobacco, gems and jewellery, tea, finance and banking and tourism sector were also done.

Indian delegation was led by Bidyut Behari Swain, Additional Secretary, Foreign Trade (CIS), Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.

Ukrainian Side was led by Oleksiy Rozhkov, Director of Directorate for International Trade and Economic Cooperation and European Integration of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine.