Beijing, Oct 05: With China emerging as a top export destination, India is looking at ways to provide more depth and variety to the bilateral trade basket by encouraging auto components, information technology, health care, textiles and tourism sectors to tap the booming Chinese market. As China's economy gallops at over eight per cent and imports surging by 40.6 per cent during the first eight months of the year to 256.9 billion US dollars, and India-China bilateral trade growing at over 60 per cent, it is high time for Indian exporters to tap the huge Chinese market, industry sources said.

"The time is ripe for a decisive move by the Indian businesses," senior director and head of East Asia representative office of the Confederation of Indian Industry, Piyush Bahl told a news agency here. According to latest Chinese customs statistics, India-China bilateral trade zoomed to 4.087 billion during the first seven months of this year, registering an impressive growth of 62 per cent over the same period of last year.

India's exports to China during January-July amounted to 2.331 billion US dollars, up 101 per cent while importing goods worth 1.756 billion US dollars from China, registering a growth of 29 per cent.

"Based on the current trade figures, one can safely assume that the two-way trade would cross seven billion US dollars by December 2004," Bahl said while expressing confidence that the targeted 10 billion US dollars in bilateral trade was also "attainable." Bureau Report