Goa has been a part of Portugal for almost four and half-century and that was the longest period of time that any foreign country has ruled any of the Indian states. Due to this, it impacted heavily on the custom and culture of the tiny state. Half of the Goans have either travelled abroad with the help of Portuguese Passport or still in the process of making the passports since that is one of the blessings Portuguese showered on the Goans before leaving this state.
The relationship of Portugal always remains cordial with India and due to this, the diplomats from Portugal keeps visiting Goa on various occasions for the purpose of business and leisure. The recent visit of the Portugal President, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has become one of the landmark visits with many lots of business plans between India and Portugal.
According to the reports, during his visit to India President Marcelo also visited Mumbai and he spoke to the dignitaries at the event organised by the CII he said that Portugal is prioritising on the sharing of the expertise with India on the electric mobility business.
“It is our priority to apply the combined expertise of both nations to expand the electric mobility business. Yesterday, we signed an agreement with India on mobility. We must quickly create a business for mobility, this is the right time,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the President of Portugal. President Marcelo also spoke about intensifying ties between India and Portugal in various sectors of the economy.
Meanwhile, the Union Minister of Railways and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said that “Several MOUs have been executed for the corporation in sectors such as industrial and intellectual property rights, maritime transport and port development, mobility and start-ups. We had further discussions related to infrastructure and real estate, a tie-up was also made with a Portuguese telecom infrastructure company,” said Piyush Goyal.
Addressing the need to have shared economic will Marcelo said that India could use Portuguese expertise in tourism and renewable energy, these areas being their strong suits. “We should also exchange expertise in ICT ( Information and Communication Technology), environment, water and sanitation, public works and construction, since both of us are good at it.”
President Marcelo also hinted at Portugal becoming a doorway to India-EU ties, Marcelo said, “It would be clever for India to invest in Portugal, not only to strengthen ties with the EU but because of Portugal’s prospective relation with the Great Britain post-Brexit.”
Goyal wants Goa to become Mini Portugal since according to him Goa has Portuguese roots. He asked President Marcelo initiate a government to government partnership in Goa, to enhance tourism and coastal tourist activities with the help of Portugal’s know-how in the field. “I propose to convert the state of Goa into a mini Portugal” he added. The president is scheduled to travel to Goa from Mumbai in the course of his 4-day visit to India.
President Marcelo opened the doors of opportunity to India saying “We are both universal nations and we get along very well, our multilateral exchanges stand to testify. It is now time to have bilateral dialogue, focused on empathy and great people to people relations. We like building bridges and look forward to building cultural, economic, educational, scientific and technological bridges with India.”
Source: The Hindu
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