Ludhiana News/CICU Organises CIS Outreach Programme with FICCI

Ludhiana, November 26, 2013: CIS Outreach programme an important initiative to create awareness about the trade & business potential of business region was organised by Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings (CICU), Ludhiana with FICCI today at CICU Complex here.

Ravi Capoor, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, Government of India said that the CIS countries came into existence after the disintegration of the erstwhile Soviet Union. All the CIS countries put together have a population of around 300 million and a combined GDP of around US $ 3 trillion. Some of these countries have very rich mineral reserves and oil & gas reserves. This has played an important role in their economic development and has led to high disposable incomes and purchasing power. The large economies in this region include Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. As such these countries are the focus areas for boosting exports.

Upkar Singh, Joint Secretary, CICU welcomed the Senior Officials from Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, DGFT, FICCI & ECGC. He said like India, many of these countries are multi lingual and multi ethnic. India has enjoyed strong cultural links with this region; especially the Central Asian countries and all these countries are considered to be natural friends of India. Our trade with the CIS countries is less than 2% of our total global trade. This implies that the potential to increase trade and investment is very high.

Avtar Singh, General Secretary, CICU said that while doing business with this region, the biggest hurdle that we face is information deficit. Many people do not know about the business opportunities this region has to offer. This programme will encourage local businessmen to look at the CIS region with a lot of interest.

Dr. Mala Iyengar, Director, Ministry of Commerce, Government of India informed that though there is an enormous reservoir of goodwill for India, this has not translated into strong business ties. She gave detailed presentation on profile of CIS (Eurasia) countries, trade vis-à-vis CIS (Eurasia) global trade profile, CIS (Eurasia) India investment vis-à-vis CIS (Eurasia) global investment, SWOT Analysis & FAQs. The experts answered queries and cleared doubts of participants.

This programme was attended by prominent industrialists i.e. Manjit Singh Khalsa, S.C. Ralhan, Joga Singh, O.P. Bassi, Sh. Phuman Singh, Kulwinder Singh Benipal, Ishwar Singh, T.R. Misra, Ram Labhaya, Jatinder Mittal, G.S. Kahlon and Jasbir Singh Chauhan.