Financial Times

Top firms at Made in India show
Some of India’s top companies are present at the second Made in India show which will open up opportunities for improving trade and investment between the two countries.

The show, which began on September 22 and ends on Monday at BMICH, Colombo, is being organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), in association with the High Commission of India in Sri Lanka and the support of Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.

It aims to promote exports and build a strong image of India overseas.
Indian High Commissioner Nirupama Rao said the show will open greener pastures for business development for both India and Sri Lanka.

It brings together strong Indian brands like Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Kinetic Engineering, Hero Honda, Hero Cycles, TVS Auto Parts, Usha International, State Bank of India, Essar Steel, Escorts, Kirloskar Oil Engines, Kirloskar Copeland, and Petroleum Conservation Research Association.

They appear on one platform to build business linkages with their counterparts, a Ceylon Chamber of Commerce statement said. With specific reference to the focus on education, a separate pavilion called– Aspirations, has been created for the first time at the Made in India show.

The High Commissioner emphasized that knowledge is the key to economic success for today’s economies, which due to several historical factors, including colonialism, have been denied an opportunity to reap the benefits of the industrial revolution.

She also mentioned that India is one of the main drivers of the knowledge revolution and this is an area where India can engage Sri Lanka in mutually beneficial partnerships.

On the trade relations between the two countries, she mentioned about the five-year-old Free Trade Agreement, which has seen bilateral trade cross the US $ 1 billion mark in 2002. The bilateral trade figure for 2004 touched US $ 1732 million with Indian exports amounting to US $ 1350 million and Sri Lankan exports amounting to US $ 382 million.

There is immense scope for trade volume to increase in the context of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement [CEPA], which the two countries are in the process of negotiating.

CEPA is expected to carry forward the FTA and take the two economies beyond trade in goods towards greater integration and impart renewed impetus and synergy to bilateral economic interaction.

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