Panaji, Feb 26 (IANS): Goa, which hosts several top German industries, got its first German visa application centre Wednesday.

Operated by VFS Global, the centre is the 13th in India and is aimed at facilitating visa formalities for the over 2,000 Goans who annually travel to Germany for business or leisure purposes.

Speaking to reporters at the centre's launch here, Consul Alexander Thielitz said that the overall plan was to make visa facilitation easy for Indians.

"This centre would cater to the western Indian region from where 42,000 visas were issued last year... Over 2,000 visa applications were received from Goa," Thielitz said.

Over 1.2 lakh visas are issued by the five German missions in India, he said.

Germany's honorary consul in Goa Dean Menezes said that the highest foreign direct investment in Goa came from German companies.

"We have 12 leading German companies operating in Goa, including Putzmeister, Siemens, Bosch, Mercedes. Indian firms too are looking for partnership in technical spheres from German firms," Menezes said.