During the first day of 3rd Third India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Business Summit on Monday the top business officials of Indian industry has said that the developing countries should cooperate with SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) sector to promote it’s operations.
Madhur Bajaj, Chairman, CII-Latin America and Caribbean Committee & Vice-Chairman, Bajaj Auto Ltd, said, “The IBSA dialogue is to bridge economies and this summit is a place for sharing of experience in various fields including tourism, agriculture, transport mechanism, etc. It has been decided to promote co-operation in the SME sector. For the purpose common terms of reference has been develop which can aim in development of this sector very important.”
“As all these three countries have large scale of small enterprises (SMEs) is respected that cooperation in this sector can have major development implications,” he added.
He said that t here was a huge unrealized potential to further trilateral trade between the three emerging giants. “Trilateral trade can touch $30 billion by 2012 from the current $10 billion if we can reduce the existing obstacles like non-tarriff barriers.”
Meanwhile Commerce minister Kamal Nath said there were huge opportunities in the fields of agriculture, mining, pharmaceutical, healthcare, bio-fuel and oil and gas, along with other in SME sector. “We need to explore and do business,” he added.
“Bilateral trade and investment relations form the core of IBSA activities. Its joint leadership comes to the fore when all three partners zealously safeguard the interests of developing countries at the WTO talks,” he told IBSA business delegates.
The two-day summit is being jointly organised by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) and Brazil’s National Confederation of Industry (CNI) and supported by the Governments of South Africa, Brazil and India.
In his address, Miguel Jorge, Brazilian Minister for Foreign Trade, Industry and Development, pointed out that the IBSA model could be a stimulus for greater South-South trade. He urged the industry from all the three countries to draw up an objective and articulate strategy taking advantage of their respective strengths to further boost trilateral trade.
Jorge emphasized the need for improving linkages between the various existing regional trade regimes like Mercosur and SACU to further boost trilateral trade between the three countries.
He also added that for all three nations SME is a vibrant sector of partnership.