CII India-Latin America and Caribbean Conclave

9 - 10 December, 2013, New Delhi

The CII India-Latin America and Caribbean Conclave was held from 9-10 December, 2013, in New Delhi. The Conclave organized with the support of Ministry of Commerce & Industry and Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India engaged over 350 delegates including Vice President, senior ministers, government officials and business leaders from Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries and India. Over the two days, India and LAC businesses conducted nearly 400 one-on-one meetings and projects worth more than $35 billion was put on offer seeking Indian industry participation.

The Conclave facilitated intense deliberations on diverse business sectors and partnership opportunities that were of common interest to India and the LAC countries. The key areas discussed were: energy, infrastructure, ICT, agriculture, mining, commodities trade, investments, financing, logistics, pharma, chemicals, tourism, travel and developmental partnerships.The Conclave saw a number of businessmen; ministers and officials from the LAC region discuss business and bilateral ties with their Indian counterparts. The inaugural address was made by India’s Minister of Commerce & Industry, Anand Sharma, and Ecuador’s Vice President Jorge Glas Espinel representing the Latin American & Caribbean side. Similarly, the concluding keynote address was made by India’s Minister for External Affairs Salman Khurshid, and his Nicaraguan counterpart Foreign Minister Samuel Santos.

Reflecting on the renewed spirit of India-LAC partnership, Mr Anand Sharma, Minister for Commerce & Industry, Government of India in his inaugural address said that the Conclave has assumed key significance for the two regions. He pointed out that wherever Indian companies have gone, they have created jobs, overcoming the barriers of language and distance. He urged India and LAC countries to create institutional linkages besides business-to-business partnerships.

Mr Jorge Glas Espinel, Vice President of Ecuador, in his address said that LAC countries are increasingly focusing on innovation, knowledge-based activities, diversification of production, productivity increases, export promotion and import substitution. India could be a key partner to the LAC countries in achieving these goals. Mr S Gopalakrishnan, President, CII & Executive Vice Chairman, Infosys Ltd, Mr Suketu Shah, Chairman, CII Latin America & Caribbean Committee, and Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, also addressed the delegates.

Mr Salman Khurshid, Minister for External Affairs, Government of India in his Valedictory address, said that India and the LAC countries should look to deepen the bilateral cooperation for poverty eradication in both regions. He observed that India and the LAC region could also promote collaborations in the area of education, covering vocational studies, community colleges, etc. The Minister urged both regions to improve the counselor services and issuance of visas. This, he said will act as a key support for business partnerships and people to people contacts between the two regions. The Minister further observed that while India-LAC bilateral trade and investment flows have increased several fold in the last 10 years, the true potentials of bilateral economic exchanges have not been realised so far. He called for closer cooperation between Indian and LAC small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Mr Samuel Santos, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nicaragua, in his address said that India and the LAC countries have many common socio-economic challenges. A better understanding of each other’s capabilities will help both regions to tackle their emerging developmental challenges more effectively. The session was also addressed by Mr Dhruv Sawhney, Past President, CII & Chairman & Managing Director, Triveni Group, and Mr Suketu Shah, Chairman, CII India-LAC Committee.

The Conclave opened with a session on ‘India-Latin America & Caribbean: Explore. Experience. Engage’ wherein Mr S R Rao, Commerce Secretary, Government of India, spoke about how India and the LAC region have emerged as the new nerve-centres of the global economy. Mr Rao observed that while India-LAC bilateral trade has recorded significant growth in the last 10 years, the bilateral trade volumes accounted for only a small part of the total trade of both regions. The Commerce Secretary and other speakers on the panel agreed that there is immense scope for increasing and broad basing the bilateral trade flows. India’s trade with the LAC region has grown from a mere $500 million in 1990 to about $47 billion in 2012-13.

The LAC speakers over different sessions made detailed presentations on the opportunities for Indian investments in their countries. The billion dollars projects included the Nicaraguan inter-oceanic canal, the Panama Canal expansion project, and other possible investments in power plants, oil and gas exploration and production contracts, IT/BPO sectors, infrastructure and pharmaceuticals. Mexico pitched itself as the ‘Manufacturing Hub of Americas’ and as the largest exporter of flat screen TVs, refrigerators and other appliances, and invited Indian companies to use their country as a base for exports to North America and forty other countries with whom they have Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). For the first time, a representative from Haiti invited Indian investment in the infrastructure and tourism sectors in their country.

Indian companies that have large operations in the region, such as Genpact, TCS, UPL and Mahindra, stressed the importance of employing local talents and narrated their successful experience with their Latin American staff and managers. Indian executives also spoke of their experience of interacting with Latin American & Caribbean businessmen. Some companies such as Praj Industries called for more credit lines and support from India’s Exim Bank. Overall, the Indian exporters and investors were bullish about the future growth of trade, investment and joint ventures in the region.Speakers from both Latin America & Caribbean and India highlighted the complementarities between the two sides in the energy and food sectors, given the surplus production of oil, gas, biofuels and food items and India’s growing need to import crude oil, edible oil, pulses etc. Markedly, Brazil is expected to become the world’s largest food exporter and be among the world’s top five oil exports by 2020. Latin America, endowed with huge mineral resources, has become a regular supplier of minerals such as copper, coal, silver and gold. The Ambassador or Peru mentioned that Peruvian gold has been coming to India through Switzerland and called for direct dealings between India and Peru – which could reduce India’s import costs by roughly 30%.

The panel spoke about the cultural contiguity between Indian and LAC people. While it was said that direct flights by Indian carriers to the LAC region may not begin in the near future, the air connectivity could be improved through code-sharing arrangements. Besides, Panama is in talks to get a Indian full-service carrier to start direct flights to the Central American country.The two regions could learn from each others’ successes and best practices in poverty alleviation, energy and biofuel production, technologies, education and healthcare. The Commerce Ministry of India expressed its readiness to start FTA negotiations with Mexico, Colombia and Peru, besides expanding its ongoing PTAs with Mercosur and Chile.

Special Plenary: India-Latin America & Caribbean: Partnership of the Future. Panelists L-R: Suketu Shah, Chairman, CII Latin America & Caribbean Committee & Jt Managing Director, Mukand Limites; H E Jorge Glas Espinel, Vice President of Ecuador; Anand Sharma, Minister for Commerce & Industry, Government of India; S Gopalakrishnan,

President, CII & Co-Founder & Executive Vice Chairman, Infosys Ltd and Chandrajit Banerjee, Dire

ctor General, CII

Plenary Session I: India-Latin America & Caribbean: Explore. Experience. Engage. Panelists L-R: S R Rao, Commerce Secretary, Government of India; Sanjeev Saksena, Vice President - South & Central America and Europe,

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd; (Ms) Marie Pascale Theodate, Member of the Cabinet, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Haiti; Ricardo Antonio Quijano, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Panama; Samuel Santos , Minister of Foreign Affairs of

Nicaragua; Suketu Shah, Chairman, CII LAC Committee & Joint Managing Director, Mukand Ltd; Francisco Rivadeneira, Minister of International Trade, Ecuador; Cesar Jesus Fragozo, Minister for Asia Pacific, Pro-Mexico and Jitender Saroop,

Vice President, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

Plenary Session II: Significance of Regional Groupings: Leveraging Regional Engagement for Business Partnerships. Panelists L-R: Leopoldo Luis Benedetti Milligan, Director General, Colon Free Trade Zone; (Ms)

Alejandra Holguin, CEO, India Mexico Solutions; Roberto Paranhos, President, India Brazil Chamber of Commerce; Nalin Surie, Former High Commissioner to UK; Francisco Rivadeneira, Minister of International Trade, Ecuador; Dammu Ravi, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Prof Abdul Nafey, Centre for US, Canada and Latin American

Studies, JNU

Plenary Session III: Panel discussion on opportunity sectors: Energy, Infrastructure and ICT. Panelists L-R: Augusto Castellanos, Director, Pro-Export Colombia; BK Mishra, Senior Vice President & Global Business Head – Energy

& Utilities, Tech Mahindra; Pramod Bhasin, Non-Executive Vice Chairman, Genpact Ltd & Chairman, Skills Academy; Deepak Bhojwani, Former Ambassador to Colombia, Cuba & Venezuela; D K Sarraf, Managing Director, ONGC Videsh

Ltd; Anupam Prakash, CEO, Andrade Gutierrez India; Vasudeo Joshi, Associate Vice President - Ethanol Group, Praj Industries Ltd and Eduardo Enrique Jaen Limnio, General Administrator of the Governmental Innovation, Panama

Plenary Session IV: Panel discussion on opportunity Sectors: Agriculture, Mining & Commodities Trade. Panelists L-R: Rajiv Wahi, Senior President, International Tractors Ltd; Jose Luis Ford, President, Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture, Panama; Dammu Ravi, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry,

Government of India; Munesh Kumar Purohit, President, Inversiones Internacionales Americas S.A., Chile and Manish Pande, Vice President (Strategy & Process), Mesco Steel

Plenary Session V: Trade and Commerce: India & Latin America & Caribbean. Panelists L-R: Juan Camilo Narino, Vice President, ANDI, Colombia; Richard Espinoza, Minister - Coordinator of Production, Ecuador; Antonio Isa

Conde, Minister of State, Adviser for Development Policies, Dominican Republic; Rajeev Arora, Joint Secretary, Commerce & Industry, Government of India; Ricardo Antonio Quijano, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Panama; Sushil

Chaudhary, Managing Director, Mann India Ltd and Pedro Ruiz, Minister of the City of Guadalajara for Economic Development, Mexico

Plenary Session VI: Investment, Financing & Logistics: Opportunities & Challenges. Panelists L-R: Praful Talera, CEO, Dynamics Logistics; Olmedo Alfaro, Panama Pacifico; David Sinate, Chief General Manager, Export – Import Bank of India; Laureano Ortega, Business man from Nicaragua; Saurabh Chandra, Secretary, DIPP, Government of India;

Pablo Ignacio García, Director, Office of Investment Projects and Productive Internationalization, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship, Argentina; Joiel Akilan, Executive

Director & Chief Representative, BBVA and Ricardo Dadoo, Founder & CEO, Logistics Dadoo, Mexico

Plenary Session VIII: Panel Discussion on Opportunity Sectors: Tourism, Travel and Connectivity. Panelists L-R: Parvez Dewan, Secretary (Tourism), Government of India; Jose Luis Ford, President, Chamber of Commerce,

Industry & Agriculture, Panama; Javier Paulinich, Ambassador of Peru to India; Fernando Gonzales Nicolas, President, Consorcio Comercial del Caribe,

Dominican Republic; K N Srivastava, Secretary (Civil Aviation), Government of India; Abelardo Cuteo Sosa, Ambassador

of Cuba to India and Randhir Brar, Executive Director, Le Passage to India

Plenary Session VII: Panel Discussion on Opportunity Sectors: Pharma and Chemicals. Panelists L-R: Anurag Khera, Vice President - Corporate Affairs, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd; Maria Sol Larrea, Advisor to the Hon’ble Minister of Industries, Ecuador; R Viswanathan, Distinguished Fellow, Latin America Studies Gateway House, Indian Council on Global Relations & former Ambassador of India to Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay; Arun Khanna, Executive Director and COO Emcure Pharmaceuticals and Vijay Sardana, Vice President, United Phosphorus Ltd

Valedictory Session: India-Latin America & Caribbean: The Way Forward. Panelists L-R: Suketu Shah, Chairman, CII LAC Committee & Joint Mg Director, Mukand Limited; Samuel Santos, Minister of Foreign Affairs,

Nicaragua; Salman Khurshid, Minister for External Affairs, Government of India and Dhruv M Sawhney, Past President CII & Chairman & Managing Director, Triveni Group

Glimpses

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