Chinese commercial counselor in India Peng Gang told Xinhua Thursday that nearly 700 Chinese officials and business leaders from China's Guangdong province and Hong Kong visiting?New Delhi?are the largest delegation from China to India on record.

They were welcomed by India's human resource development minister Kapil Sibal and minister for food processing industries Subodh Kant Sahai here Wednesday who emphasized the collaboration with China in low cost technology solutions and food processing will better the lives of the poor of both countries and the world.

Addressing the 2000 Indian and Chinese audience in the Guangdong-Hong Kong business conference in New Delhi, Kapil Sibal said, "both Indian and China are low cost economies, if we are in collaboration with each other to create technologies on a low cost economy, the solution emerges will not only be for this part of the world but rest of the world. That must be the objective we achieve in the years to come. "

Noting finance as another area of collaboration between the two countries, he said India infrastructure sector requires enormous fund. "I dare say next five year we will need a trillion dollars, the demand for the power and road sector is nothing less than 550 billion dollars."

Thought India's services are doing well in China with companies like TCS and Infosys operating both in Hong Kong and mainland China, he pointed out that "we need collaboration in the hardware which is where the new technology going to be. That has not happen at the expected pace."

"Only with low cost and high quality solution can both India and China reach the poor and achieve inclusive growth which are iterated both by China's president Hu Jintao and India's prime minister Manmohan Singh."

He said, "We need solution in low cost housing, in clean energy, in water management, and agricultural growth which are all major challenges."

"Therefore what we need is collaboration, not confrontation, and competition with collaboration. Conference of this nature build the bridges of that collaboration which is necessary for the low cost solutions to change the lives of world's poor people." said Mr.Kapil Sibal.

Mentioning the disputes between the two large Asia neighbors, he said, "as countries move forward, there will be issues, but we need to resolve these issues in a collaborative and constructive manner. It is that collaboration that ultimately bring people together, economies together and it is in this spirit that I stand here as a representative of government of India to extend the warm welcome to the Chinese business and official delegation to say that time has come for the two greatest nation of the world march together hand in hand for the betterment of lives of millions of people."

Subodh Kant Sahai, minster of food processing of India, who has visited China twice this year, encouraged both Indian and Chinese investment in India's food processing Industry as 70 percent of India's population is in agriculture.

He said China has become a leader of the food processing sector and the two countries can collaborate with food technology, giving Indian farmer a market driven farming.

"Though India produces largest quantity of milk, second largest in vegetables and fruits, and so many things are second largest, but our processing level is very low. China has gone much ahead in the area; therefore I require your investing in food processing industry. It not only will benefit you, but give you a sense of helping the poor and the opportunity for providing food security for the humankind," said the minister.