NEW DELHI, May 25 (Xinhua) -- As the two largest developing economies, India and China should work together for mutual benefits, said Indian economists prior to the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit.

V. Upadhyay, who specializes in development economics and works at the Delhi-based Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), told Xinhua that the two countries must work together.

"There are so many opportunities ... Already we have a very high level of trade relations between India and China," he said.

China has ample capital and high expertise in many fields, he said, so India can make use of what China has and is ready to offer.

"But in terms of geopolitical terms, if India takes China as a competitor, it won't hold good. In the long run that won't help us really much," he said.

Concerning the Western allegation that China is a developed economy, he said although the Chinese economy has seen a lot of progress, but if one looks at the per capita income of the Chinese people, it is quite low.

"A lot of people continue living in poverty in China, and there can't be any comparison between their living standard with those in European countries, the U.S. or Japan," he added.

Swati Yadav, a senior assistant professor in the department of Economics at the Delhi University's Bhagini Nivedita College, said that while the Western world wants China to embrace the responsibilities of a developed country, China will remain the largest developing country.

"With the status of a developed country comes the responsibilities, especially with regards to the issue of climate change," she said, adding that China is still a developing economy with developed eastern coastal cities and poor western areas.

Swati said that India and China can together present a united front while discussing issues at the international organizations where bargaining needs to be done with the developed nations.