Overseas expansion on the cards for Reliance Jio Infocomm; may set up a subsidiary in Estonia

Telecom operator Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd is reportedly planning to expand overseas and could set up a subsidiary in Estonia, a small north European country that has, in recent times, become a favourite investment destination for startups owing to its business-friendly policies. According to a report in the  Mint, Reliance Industries Ltd’s (RIL) subsidiary Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Ltd will provide a loan of Rs 12.20 crore to the Estonian unit to begin operations. “Thanks to its sophisticated e-solutions, over the last decade, Estonia has transformed itself into one of Europe’s business success stories. Indian companies would certainly wish to collaborate and imbibe e-governance solutions in this regard and Jio is no exception,” a person familiar with the development was quoted as saying by the Mint. [caption id=“attachment_4280257” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] In March, in a meeting with an Estonian government delegation, RIL Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani expressed his desire to collaborate with that nation to develop better e-governance solutions for India. A statement from RIL had said that Ambani is looking to replicate the innovative solutions offered by Estonia in India. The statement also said that Ambani expressed an interest in Estonia’s ’e-residency programme’,  which will give him and his businesses easy access to the European Union (EU). The e-residency programme – which offers startups access to a government-issued digital ID, thus enabling the opening of a global EU company fully online while working from anywhere in the world – is the gateway to do business in Europe, said Ambani. “We believe your solutions are easily scalable to India. We wish to have a very close cooperation with your talent in Estonia,” he added. With inputs from IANS (Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd)