Comm Min to court former USSR countries to regain lost trade

Mumbai: In a bid to recoup significant trade ground in 12 key CIS members, the Commerce Ministry has launched an aggressive strategy to promote India’s commercial engagement with the former member states of the erstwhile USSR. “Between now and March 2015, the Ministry of Commerce will be participating in 14 India-specific shows in CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) through different industry members like CII, Ficci, Assocham and FIEO to whom we gave money to organise these events,” Joint Secretary in the Ministry Ravi Capoor said at the India Engineering Sourcing Show (IESS) here. [caption id=“attachment_1321449” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Image courtesy Assocham website.[/caption] Addressing the India-CIS Business Forum, Capoor said India’s trade with these countries as members of the erstwhile USSR used to account for 26 percent of the country’s total trade which has now been reduced to less than 1 percent. “In our market they don’t figure; in their market we don’t figure,” he said. However, the Ministry of Commerce is now encouraging Indian businessmen to re-enter this part of the world which is among the 4 fastest growing regions of the world. These are: the ASEAN, Latin America, Africa and CIS. “Twenty fastest growing economies of the world figure in these 4 regions and four (of 20) are from the CIS,” Capoor said. He said that the CIS members, also known as the Eurasian countries, are quite rich in natural resources like oil, natural gas, metals & minerals. They are also a useful source of several other raw materials which are of considerable importance to India’s manufacturing industry. Addressing the same gathering, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs Ajay Bisarya said that to improve the connectivity with the CIS countries, “We are setting up an e-network with hub in India and its spokes in CIS in the field of tele-education and tele-medicine”. He listed the business opportunities in the ancillary units in the defence sector in which India and Russia have a significant relationship. Bisarya said that while India and the CIS countries have strong political and defence ties,business is the weakest link. Kazakhstan Ambassador to India Doulat Kunshev said the problem because of lack of land connectivity will be overcome after a railway network among Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran kicks off in the near future. He said this railway network will be connected to Bandar Abbas port in Iran. “That will make the distance shortest between Kazakhstan and India,” he said. While the Indian Ministry of Commerce is trying to overcome the language barrier with the help of Indian students studying in different CIS countries, the Ministry of External Affairs is taking up the issue of visa delays with these countries. Among the 12 CIS countries, the biggest potential lies with Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. PTI