India and Brazil Rediscover Economic Ties

MUMBAI, INDIA - As part of the 8th BRICS Summit held in Goa, India, a Brazilian delegation to Mumbai visited the World Trade Centre Mumbai to explore new vistas for trade, commerce and investment with the local business and trading communities. 

An International Business Round Table was held in their honour which included business-to-business meetings, organized by World Trade Centre (WTC) Mumbai, All India Association of Industries, ApexBrasil and Ministry of Foreign Affairs Brazil at WTC Mumbai on October 18, 2016. 

Ms. Rosimar da Silva Suzano, Consul General, Consulate General of Brazil in Mumbai who facilitated the event said, “Market opportunities exist in the areas of food and drinks (coffee, tea, fruits, cocoa, and confectionary products), home and building (woods), machinery and equipment (vehicles and auto parts), mineral products and chemicals. Brazil has recently launched a new infrastructure Program, ‘Crescer’ (meaning ‘grow’) which will focus on concession, privatisation and public-private partnerships. Brazil and India should rather look for complementarities and synergies between their respective markets and mind-sets in order to increase and upgrade their business potential”.

Introducing the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), Mr. Gajanan Patil, General Manager-Marketing said, “MIDC is the largest industrial development corporation in India having 264 industrial parks and approximately 73,000 hectares of land. Maharashtra attracts 29 percent (1/3rd) of the FDI that flow into India and accounts for a total of 14 percent of India’s GDP”.

With fiscal and non-fiscal incentives provided by MIDC and with progressive initiatives aimed at improving business environment, mega and ultra mega projects are being set up with the support of MAITRI, a single-window clearing system.

Ms. Lara Gurgel, representing Apex-Brasil, the trade promotion agency in Brazil, said that Apex-Brasil supported 80 sectors of the Brazil economy, agriculture being one of the main sectors. The main objective of the trade investment agency is to provide exchange of information between countries through the support of the local facilitators such as the consulate and local trade promotion bodies.

Mr. Vijay Kalantri, Vice Chairman, World Trade Centre Mumbai and President, All India Association of Industries said, “India and Brazil share a special relationship and tremendous opportunities lie between them especially in natural resources, besides traditional areas such as agriculture, food processing, oil & gas, mining, textile, spinning etc. With the successful conclusion of the 8th BRICS Summit in Goa, member countries should work towards the success of BRICS. Rather than taking the whole spectrum of sectors we should focus on five major areas of collaboration. One such sector is technology which India requires and can be fulfilled through collaborative efforts with Brazil. We are a consumer market and Brazil must explore various business and trade opportunities with India, Mr. Kalantri stressed.

In Photo (L-R): Mr. Vijay Kalantri, Vice Chairman, World Trade Centre Mumbai, Ms. Rosimar da Silva Suzano, Consul General, Consulate General of Brazil in Mumbai and Ms. Lara Gurgel, Trade Promotion Division, Apex-Brasil.

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