Kolkata | Feb 25, 2016: The Polish government is hopeful of signing a pact with India for cooperation in coal mining and related fields to achieve a common goal in the next two months.

Polish deputy minister of economic development Radoslaw Domagalski-Labedzki today said the subject was discussed in a meeting with India's coal secretary Anil Swarup.

Speaking on the sidelines of an ICC-organised programme here, the minister said that his government possesses a lot of expertise in terms of technology in underground coal mining.

"Both of us are now looking forward to signing an agreement in two months," he said.

The MoU would be for providing machinery, knowledge sharing and technology in underground mining from Poland.

Last year, India imported over 10 million tonnes of coal from Poland.

Poland has been active in coal mining for over 100 years, but in the last few years it was affected due to subsidised pricing of the commodity in the global market.

"Polish economy is highly dependent on coal energy and we will not deviate from this. However, we are increasing our investments in various renewable energy resources like solar, bio-mass and more. Besides, we are also innovating new technologies for cleaner coal energy," said Domagalski-Labedzki.

Besides, Poland is also exploring options to enter the food processing sector in India and a team of at least 20 Polish companies are scheduled to visit the country in March.

"We were enlightened about the mega food parks that are coming up across the country during the Make in India week and the centre has invited us to discover investment opportunities here," added the Polish minister.

Another area of interest for Poland is home furnishing and it is currently studying the market opportunities here.

(Source: http://www.business-standard.com/)