Monday, March 17, 2008

Latin America and the Caribbean: An Emerging Market on India’s Trade

by Jo Black

In a unique seminar, 10 heads of missions and top officials from the Latin American and Caribbean Countries represented in India, made presentations on opportunities in doing business with their countries, in a day-long seminar organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). These included, H.E. Mr Ernesto Carlos Alvarez, Ambassador, Republic of Argentina; Ms Urvashi Ramnarine, Deputy High Commissioner, Trinidad & Tobago; H.E. Mr Miguel Angel Ramirez Ramos, Ambassador, Cuba; Ms Soraya Caro, Legal Counselor, Embassy of Columbia; H.E. Mr Alberto Jose Pinzon Mata, Ambassador, Panama, H.E. Mr Alfonso Silva, Ambassador, Republic of Chile; H.E. Mr K Baijnath, Ambassador, Republic of Suriname; H.E. Mr Carlos Abad, Ambassador, Ecuador; H.E. Mr Rogelio Granguillhome, Ambassador, Mexico and H.E. Mr Hans Dannenberg Castellanos, Ambassador Dominican republic.

The Latin American and Caribbean countries are becoming increasingly important to a globalizing India, to Indian businessmen as well as to the apex shapers of trade and Commerce like the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), said Virendra Gupta, Joint Secretary, Investment and Trade Promotion (ITP), Ministry of External Affairs, at a seminar organized by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi today.

The energy resources from the region can be leveraged for infrastructure development by Indian companies, he said and added that the government is encouraging Indian entrepreneurs to undertake long-term capacity building in these countries.

Senior Indian businessmen, Ambassadors of several Latin American and Caribbean countries and officials of the Government of India shared ways of augmenting trade and commerce between India and the region during this exclusive interaction between heads of missions of Latin American and Caribbean countries in the capital.

The Latin American and countries not only want India to say that it is interested in the region but act on it as well specially through augmenting business and tourism, said H.E. Mr Hans Dannesberg Castellanos, Ambassador, Dominican Republic and Coordinator, Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries (GRULAC). Thirteen Caribbean countries from the region have set up missions in India and El Salvador is in the process of doing so, he said and added that each country is also working on making visas easy for Indian citizens to facilitate people to people contact and South-South cooperation.

This assurance regarding visas is very encouraging for Indian businessmen and the Ministry of External affairs will also endeavour towards streamlining the procedures to remove problems regarding travel for businessmen to the region, Gupta said.

With a combined GDP of three trillion USD, Latin America and the Caribbean is the next big destination for Indian Industry, said Sanjay Singh, Vice President, Tata Services. While trade with these countries had grown from three billion USD in 2005 to almost seven billion USD in the current financial year, the imports from the region too have seen a similar rise. The need of the hour is to use this complementary potential in a mutually beneficial manner, he added.

CII has welcomed nine business delegations from the GRULAC region between March and December 2007 and Indian businessmen have traveled to five countries in the region during the period.

The Heads of Missions from the Latin American and Caribbean Region highlighted the fact that the trade relations between India and the region had increased positively over the past years and were encouraging to the industry members in offering all possible help on information and policy matters relating to trade and investments with their country.

Mr Ravi Thapar, Joint Secretary (LAC), Ministry of External Affairs, commented that the presentations made by the Ambassadors and senior officials from the LAC countries had been an eye opener, not only for him but also for the members of the Indian industry on the huge opportunities available to the Industry in doing business with the LAC Region. He encouraged the Indian industry to take the advantage of the opportunities available and reach the Latin American and Caribbean markets.

Mr Rajeev Dubey, Deputy Editor, Business World and Mr Harinder Sikka, Director, Nicholas Piramal, while moderating the sessions thanked the Ambassadors and the senior Government and embassy officials on their presentations and efforts to promote business between India and their countries.

 

 

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