CII delegation in Buenos Aires 13 December 2007

A delegation of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) was in Buenos Aires on 13 December. An India- Argentina Business Meet was organised at the Indian restaurant Katmandu from1230 to 1800 hrs. It was attended by about 70 Argentine businessmen. The speakers at the Meet included Mr Stancanelli, Director general of Foreign office, Osvaldo Rial, President of the Industrial Union of Buenos Aires province, Jorge Zorreguieta President of the Food Industries association and Neville mevawala, leader of the CII delegation.

In my welcome speech in Spanish, I highlighted
-the short term ( 3 year) goal to take bilateral trade from 1.2 billion to 3 billion dollars and Indian investment from 800 million to 2 billion dollars.
-long term goal to build partnership in which India ( with its large and growing market ) could contribute to Argentine exports, growth and prosperity while Argentina could contribute to India's food and energy security.




In the morning, the delegation visited the Industrial Union of Buenos Aires province and had meetings with their members. This Association is planning to take a delegation to India in the first half of 2008.

The delegation had a meeting with the Governor of Buenos Aires Province Mr Daniel Scioli, who spoke in English about the opportunities for business with his province.

The CII delegation was impressed with the enthusiastic response of the Argentine business and government and the business opportunities. They plan to organise the next Indo- Latin American Business Conclave in Argentina in the second quarter of 2008.

Business with Uruguay

During my trip to Uruguay last week, I had a meeting with the uruguay-India chamber of Commerce in Montevideo. The Chamber is vibrant and has an elegant office and the members of the chamber are enthusiastic about business with India. India's exports in the first ten months of 2007 were 39 million dollars and imports 7 million dollars. There is scope to increase the trade to 100 million dollars in the next 3-4 years.
TCS, Mahindra and Mahindra and Biotech international have operations in Montevideo. Our Honorary Consul Daniel Bajuk has an agency selling Bajaj and Hero motorcycles.Indian vegetable oil producers' consortium is seriously looking into the possibility of investment in agribusiness including soya farming in uruguay.
Martin de Castro, the Montevideo-based Commercial officer of our embassy is dynamic, knowledgeable and is commited to assisting indian business. his contact decastromartin@gmail.com


meeting with the Chamber


I visited the bonded warehouse of Grupo Ras in Montevideo Port, where the Central Warehousing Corporation of India has rented 2000 sq metres for use by Indian exporters. The bonded ware house of Grupo Ras has 40,000 sq metres of modern space and moves 100 containers a week. They have offices in other South American countries. Ruben Azar, the young, energetic and dynamic owner of this company with turnover of 40 million dollars has been biten by the India bug. He has been to india several times and sees great potential for business with India. His facility has been used by Reliance, Aurobindo and other Indian companies. Grupo Ras is not only offering warehousing facility but also marketing of indian products in the region. More info www.gruporas.com




here is a picture of the bonded warehouse





below is the CWC space and Ruben Azar

I attended the inaguration of the new building of TCS at Zona Americas in Montevideo. The inaguration of this 4 million dollar building was done by the Uruguyan vice president. The new building will house 250 professionals out of the 800 being employed by TCS in Uruguay. They have plans to increase staff. TCS has also set up a regional IT training centre in Montevideo for candidates from all over Latin America. the credit for success of TCS in latin America goes to Gabriel Rozman.

This is the new building of TCS.