Indian origin Portuguese PM Antonio Costa to visit India
Portugal Prime Minister Antonio Costa will be on seven-day visit official visit to India beginning January 7.
Costa will hold official talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 7 in the national capital. During his visit, he is also expected to call on President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice President Hamid Ansari.
India is all set to welcome Portugal’s prime minister António Luís Santos da Costa. Protagal’s PM can call India his home away from home. Portuguese PM traces his roots from goa as his father was of Goan descent.
His father Orlando da Costa left goa at the age 18 and went to Lisbon to study history at a local university. Costa’s paternal grandfather, Luís Afonso Maria da Costa was a Goan Catholic.
His India visit is a packed schedule. Portuguese PM will hold talks with PM Modi on 7 January. He will be the chief guest at the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas in Bengaluru on 8-9 January 2017.
PM Costa will also attend the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit on 10 January 2017 at Gandhinagar. Several MoUs are expected to be signed during the visit that would set the agenda for India-Portugal relations going forward. PM Costa is likely to be accompanied by several Ministers.
In the last leg of his visit to India, PM Costa will be in Goa on 11-12 January 2017. In Goa, he would be meeting the Governor and Chief Minister.
PM Costa will also spend some time at his ancestral place.this would be his second visit to the house, the first being when he was a teen and had come with his parents.It will be a true home coming.
Bilateral trade between India and Portugal stands at US $ 692 mn in FY 2015-16. Portuguese investment in India stands at $36.4 mn.
Portugal ranks 56th in Foreign Direct Investments to India. portugal has a large indian origin diaspora. Portugal has a large Indian origin diaspora with the Indian community in Portugal .
An estimated 7500 people of Gujarati origin live in Portugal now.6935 Indian nationals live in Portugal. 4990 visa were given to Portuguese nationals between 1 Jan 2016 to 30th November 2016.
Under the ‘Know Goa’ Programme sponsored by the Government of Goa, three Goan diaspora youth in 2015 and two youth in 2016 visited Goa to reconnect with their roots.
