India's Engagement With Latin American And Caribbean Nations (LAC) Via Business Conclave

Lac Before The Leap: India's Engagement With Latin American And Caribbean Nations (LAC) Via Business Conclave

India now has to make the leap to a developed nation and a superpower soon and a strong collaboration with the Latin American and Caribbean Nations or LAC could go a long way in accomplishing this. Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry has just given the call to LAC as well as Indian businesses to increase the volume of trade to twice its current size from the present USD 42 billion in the coming five years. She said, as per media report that “The current bilateral trade volume in which India exports are about half of the total imports from the LAC region is not reflective of the potential which we could collectively achieve by broad-basing our trade and economic ties and by diversifying the basket of traded goods and services. Doubling the trade figures in the next five years should be our collective goal and bilateral investments could help us in achieving this milestone.”

Over 350 business persons and policy makers from the LAC and Indian nations attended the conclave as Argentina the partner nation itself arrived with over 100 business men. There were around 23 nations from the LAC region which participated in this event. The Minister said that over 100 Indian companies have invested over USD 15 billion in Latin America in sectors like IT, pharmaceuticals, energy, sugar, agrochemicals, cosmetics and plastics. Latin American companies have invested a total of around US$1 billion in India in steel, multiplexes, bus assembly, auto parts and electrical motors.

She said “I am of the firm opinion that our perspective and how we are going to assess the emerging scenario would go a long way in transforming challenges into opportunities, insurmountable issues into realised goals and abiding India-LAC economic and cultural relations into building blocks. This will also help our trade, economic and cultural relations to blossom and realise their hitherto unexplored potential.”

Sidharth Birla, President, FICCI and Chairman, Xpro India Ltd., in his welcome address remarked, “The landmark initiative by FICCI, under the guidance and support of the Government of India, is aimed towards opening new windows of engagement and opportunities between India and Latin America and the Caribbean region.”

He added “Thanks to the process of intense engagement with all LAC missions in India and FICCI's partners in LAC countries, this conclave has received an overwhelming response.”R Bakshi, Convener of India-LAC Conclave 2014 and Chairman & Managing Director, RRB Energy, indicated that India-LAC Investment Conclave been the biggest business conclave this year with a lot of potential.