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9 December 2013

CII India-Latin America and Caribbean Conclave



CII India-Latin America and Caribbean Conclave

On December 10, Ambassador R. Viswanathan, Distinguished Fellow, Latin America Studies, Gateway House, chaired a panel discussion titled ‘Opportunity sectors: Pharmaceuticals and healthcare’ at the Fifth CII India-Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Conclave that was hosted in New Delhi from December 9-10.

The Conclave saw a number of businessmen, ministers and officials from the LAC region discuss business and bilateral ties with their Indian counterparts. It was organised with support from the government of India, especially from the Ministries of External Affairs and Commerce.

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 side. Similarly, the concluding keynote address was made by India’s Minister of External Affairs Salman Khurshid, and his Nicaraguan counterpart Foreign Minister Samuel Santos.

The LAC speakers made detailed presentations on the opportunities for Indian investment in their countries. The projects included the $40 billion dollars 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 affable experience of interacting with Latin American businessmen and staff whom they found to be warm, friendly and lively. 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 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 Peruvian Ambassador 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 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.

Ambassador Viswanathan is Distinguished Fellow, Latin America Studies, Gateway House. He is the former Indian Ambassador to Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela, and Consul General in Sao Paulo.

You can read more analyses from Gateway House on India-Latin America relations, here.