Beijing: India has successfully dealt with a "bogey" that China was poised to invade the country economically by swamping the Indian market with cheap goods, Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley said on October 17.

"As far as India is concerned, the bogey over Chinese threat is over," Jaitley said.

"By improving our efficiency, we have conclusively ended the threat perception of the Chinese invading our economic market," he said while noting that this year Indian exports to China had outpaced the Communist giant's exports to India.

During the first six months of 2003, Indian exports to China rose by 101 per cent to $ 1.97 billion while China's exports to India rose 35 per cent to touch $ 1.48 billion, resulting in a trade balance of $ 501 million in India's favour.

Jaitley recalled that people in India complained of threat of Chinese goods swamping the market.

"But a free market is the best stabiliser. Poor quality goods were driven out of the market, not by the government, but by the market itself," he said on the sidelines of the biggest-ever "Made in India" industrial exposition mounted by the Indian industries which are seeking a share in China's booming market.

"The threat argument is always used by inefficient and high-cost economies as against the efficient ones. Today, the name of the game is competition. You have to compete and improve. You have to make your product cost and quality competitive. It is only then that you will sell."

PTI