President Pratibha Devisingh Patil has urged the world aviation industry to partner with India’s growing civil aviation sector.

She said the world nations must continuously negotiate new bilateral treaties to expand access to new and emerging markets for their carriers.

She was speaking at the inaugural function of the 4th International Civil Aviation Conference held in Mumbai this morning.

The President also said that this conference provides a very convenient and essential platform for a large number of states to negotiate bilateral agreements quickly with the saving of time and expenditure.

The President emphasised that many stake holders of the aviation sector including equipment manufacturers, software developers, infrastructure builders and airport services should interface with each other for sustainable growth of this sector.

Pratibha Devisingh Patil informed the gathering that the potential for growth of civil aviation in India is huge and India is poised to be among top five aviation nations in the world in the next ten years.

At present India is the ninth largest civil aviation market. Outlining the importance given by the government to the civil aviation sector, the President said that between 2005 and 2010, 10 billion US dollars have been invested in airport development in country. She said that public private partnership is the chosen model for new development in aviation.

Mrs. Patil highlighted that one of the key achievements of India in the last decade has been to set up an independent regulator for economic regulation of airports by an act of parliament.

The President released coins to commemorate 100 years of civil aviation in India on this occasion.