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ITALY AND INDIA BUSINESS FORUM
Rome (Ign) - This is the year of Italy in India: from 11th to 14th February on the occasion of the visit of the Prime Minister Romano Prodi to New Delhi, the Ministry of International Trade and the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE), in collaboration with the representatives of Italian businesses - Confindustria - and banks - Abi -, are organising the Italy and India Business Forum, an event aimed at promoting business relations between the two countries.
The business mission, which has already attracted 400 Italian businesses, will include three distinct events. The first, between 11 and 13 February in Calcutta, will be open to businesses from all sectors; while the event in Bangalore on 11-12 February, is specifically organised for the sector of information & communication technology. Here, in addition to a series of meetings with potential partners, an agreement will be signed between STMicroelectronics and some of the leading Indian universities. Then on the 14th, Mumbay (Bombay) will host the economic forum for bilateral cooperation, to be followed by a series of B2B meetings between Italian and Indian businesses.
The forum will include talks, seminars and meetings between Italian and Indian businesses, in collaboration with the Indian Chambers of Commerce and business organisations. The main industrial groups of the two countries, covering sectors ranging from clothing, insurance, cars and banks, to energy, pharmaceutics, construction materials and tourism, will comprise the Council of the Forum. In New Delhi, on 15 February, the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, and the Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, will receive the first joint declaration of the entrepreneurs on the board. After this appointment, the Business Forum will meet once a year, alternating between the two countries.
Moreover, the interchange between Italy and India is already impressive: according to the Italian Statistics Institute (ISTAT), in the first ten months of 2006, Italian exports to India in fact grew by 25.3%. The boom above all can be attributed to sales of mechanical machinery and apparatus, electrical appliances, electrotechnics and metallurgy, precision instruments, and tools. But the Italian mission may also open up business opportunities in other sectors. A case in point is the food industry, with the Indian retail market increasingly interested in large-scale distribution, meaning that Italian companies can immediately enter markets already witnessing promising expansion. Then there is the chain of food processing services, where Italy boasts great experience in the various phases, from packaging to refrigeration and logistics. The Indian government has also decided to focus on infrastructures, where the funding considered necessary by the Indian manufacturers' association is $331bn over 5 years, of which 9bn has already been planned for modernising India's airports.
Another great field of prospective business could be textiles and leather, where Italy, which already supplies machinery to Indian industries, could lay the foundations for collaboration in semifinished products: in this case relocation could lead to a whole series of commercial benefits for both the production systems.
In car components the agreement between Fiat Auto and Tata Motors will pave the way for future initiatives, as in cinema: Italy will be the only country partner at Frames, the audiovisual fair planned in March in Mumbai, where Bollywood, the Indian film industry, is based. Not to mention wine: since Delhi opened the frontiers to wine imports in 2001, Vinitaly figures show that demand has grown exponentially, and now stands at 7.8 million bottles, of which 166,000 bear Italian labels, accounting for turnover of €882,000, up 40% on the first nine months of 2006. Basically, for all the markets of reference the bases have been laid for the "conquest" of India. This is a market with 300m consumers who already have spending power comparable to western standards; all it is waiting for is a chance to appreciate Italian products.
"Events Programme"
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