India-South Korea Trade Ties to Further Improve in Post Covid-19 World With Make in India Boost

New Delhi: India's ambassador to South Korea Sripriya Ranganathan has given the first clear indication that India is likely to be the beneficiary of South Korea's manufacturing plans post Covid-19 crisis and how the world does business.

Speaking exclusively to News18 over the phone from Seoul, Ranganathan said, "I am hopeful that over the next few months, this will obviously not be an immediate development, but over the next few months more Korean companies will see the merit of setting up their manufacturing in India so that they are able to meet the huge demands of India right there, from there.”

In a post Covid-19 scenario, countries like US, Korea and Japan, which have huge dependency on China, are looking at alternatives and India could emerge as a preferred destination provided it is able to step up the game.

The Gujarat government has said it has already written to political and business authorities in Japan, inviting them to shift their commercial units and operations from China. In fact, it has announced a $2.2 billion economic stimulus package to help Japanese manufacturing units move out of China.

Meanwhile, Ranganathan also said South Korea has stepped up its production of Covid-19 testing kits tremendously to meet the current requirements. She said, "Over the next few weeks and months, we should be able to take advantage of this capacity and this very positive feeling towards India to be able to enhance our sourcing from there."

ICMR has entered into an agreement with South Korean firm Humasis Ltd for the supply of 5 lakh rapid testing kits. The serological kits will start arriving from the 3th of April with the first batch comprising 50,000 units.