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New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, an independent organisation of Reliance Industries, has submitted a proposal to the West Bengal government to set up an India-China Centre.
"Negotiations between both the parties are on. The government is likely to earmark land for the project soon," sources at Writers' Building, headquarters of the Left Front government, said.
The proposed centre's international faculty will offer a residential programme for 100 days, including conducted tours of China for 10 days. Observer Research Foundation will leverage its partnership with Brokling Institute of Washington, which started a course on China last September. The centre will also set up consultancy and research wings in Shanghai and Beijing.
Though Reliance Industries declined to comment, state government sources said the idea was to bridge the cultural gap between India and China so that executives could take the ties between the two emerging forces of the global economy beyond business.
Sources familiar with India-China ties said rising bilateral trade between the two countries in the backdrop of stagnant business co-operation demanded that the relationship be taken beyond trade.
India-China trade is growing at 20 per cent a year. This year, it is expected to cross the $16-billion mark against last year's $13 billion. Reliance exported petrochemicals and refinery products worth $750 million last year.
