Indo-African buyer-seller meet
A stall at the Indo-African buyer-seller meet organised by Engineering Export Promotion Council in Coimbatore on Monday.As many as 18 buyers from Africa participated in a buyer-seller meet organised here on Monday by the Engineering Export Promotion Council. They held discussions with about 65 manufacturers here. Engineering products from Coimbatore are known for quality
The visiting buyers are exploring business potential for various machinery and equipment such as agricultural equipment, agro-processing machinery, construction machinery and materials, packaging and printing machinery and materials, cables, solar lighting, cranes, switch gears, cotton spinning machinery, oil mill machinery, stone polishing, drilling equipment, machine tools, pumpsets and generators.The two-day programme was inaugurated by C. Rajendran, Commissioner of Central Excise, Coimbatore. The buyers will visit the industries here on Tuesday.
According to K. Kasthurirangaian, chairman of the council’s functional committee, Coimbatore, engineering exports from India to Africa in 2006-2007 is worth $ 2.34 billion (approximately Rs. 9,360 crore).This is 32 per cent more than the previous year. Total engineering exports from the country this financial year is expected to be to the tune of $ 30 billion (Rs. 1.20 lakh crore) against $ 27 billion (Rs. 1.08 lakh crore) last year.
Engineering products from Coimbatore are known for quality and the buyers will be able to establish long-term business contracts here.M. Ganesan, Regional Director of the council, said this was a specialised event. The buyers held discussions on one-to-one basis.Apart from business opportunities, they were looking at investment potential here, either individually or through joint ventures. Some of them also wanted to invite the industries here to invest in their country for manufacturing and also to establish projects there.
The country had over 13,000 engineering exporters. Apart from the major cities, the council was organising such events this year in cities such as Coimbatore, Jalandar and Nagpur too.These were manufacturing hubs and the visitors would be able to visit the production centres.A buyer-seller meet was planned in Bangalore on March 6 with buyers from the CIS countries, he said.
