Leading Chinese companies call for investing in India at India-China Business and Investment Forum in Shanghai today

Consulate General of India in Shanghai organized today a large scale India-China Business and Investment Forum (ICBIF) focusing on promoting investments from leading Chinese companies in sectors like Infrastructure, Urban Transportation, Railways, Renewable Energy, Smart Cities and Power Generation. The event was attended by a packed audience consisting of nearly 200 Chinese companies, select Indian companies, members of media along with distinguished representatives from governments and business fraternities of both sides.

2. In a unique show of making a strong sales pitch for the Make in India initiative of Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi, four CEOs of leading Chinese companies made presentation(s) to potential Chinese investors on the advantages of the Make in India campaign. These included Mr. Nan Cunhui, Chairman, Chint Group (into renewable energies and solar panels), Mr. Weimin Yao, Senior Vice President, Huawei (set up the Bangalore R & D Center for Huawei), Mr. Shen Jianfang, Chairman, Highly Electric (has a production facility in Ahemadabad for air compressors with 40% of the Indian market share) and Mr. Yang Qi, GM, CRRC Puzhen, Nanjing (providing metro/rail coaches to several Metro Projects in India). Each of them drew upon their longstanding experience of operating in India and urged potential Chinese investors to look at investing in the Indian market aggressively. They cited the changed business environment, ease of doing business, cost of hiring labour and the volumes of project opportunities as the key advantages that India offered to Chinese investors. Some of the key issues raised by them for potential Chinese investors in India, included (i) adopting long term strategy for the Indian market (ii) localization with employment of more Indian workers (iii) compliance with local laws (iv) gainful investment in R&D (v) availability of land and adequate supportive infrastructure (vi) tax structure including concern over complexity of the tax regime.

3. From the Shanghai Municipal Government, Mr. Zhou Taitong, Vice Chairman of the Shanghai CPPCC highlighted the important role of Prime Minister Modi in changing the business environment in India and called upon Chinese companies from Shanghai and the Eastern China Region to take full advantage of the opportunities available in India presently. In addition, Chairman of Shanghai CCPIT Mr. Yang Jianrong added that given the overall direction of India-China bilateral ties, investments from Chinese companies in India were likely to go up exponentially. He also called upon Chinese companies and provincial leaderships to actively participate in the upcoming Make in India Week to be held in Mumbai from 13 – 18 February.

4. President of the New Development Bank (NDB), Mr. K.V. Kamath who was the Key Note Speaker offered the NDB perspective and underscored that India and China as two of the leading developing country partners from the BRICS context, could change the narrative of South-South Cooperation through their partnership. He underscored that given the pace of India’s rapid modernization there were several aspects where India could learn from where China’s transformative experience which had lifted millions out of poverty successfully.

5. Director General of Investments and Trade Promotion Division from the Ministry of External Affairs, Mr. Nagraj Naidu also made a detailed presentation on the plethora of opportunities available for Chinese companies in the IT, e-Commerce, Retail, Renewable Energy (in particular Solar Energy) and Infrastructure and urged them to join the Make in India campaign. Representatives of leading Indian companies like Larsen & Toubro, Adani Group, Reliance, GMR and several other leading Indian Banks also made brief intervention highlighting areas where they could partner with counterpart Chinese companies in executing projects in India.

6. A detailed handout of the upcoming investment opportunities and projects in India which would be available till 2018 (with all contact details) were also provided to all the 150 CEOs of Chinese companies who attended the Event. Business to Business (B2B) meetings were organized between Indian and Chinese companies during the luncheon interaction. All attendees were given a “Business Information Kit”, which comprised of detailed of the “Make in India” week, as well as projects available for investment by Chinese companies.

7. Given the high interest and exceptionally large number of Chinese companies who attended today’s event, it is likely to yield substantial investment flows in India during 2016. Additionally Provincial leaders from Zhejiang and Jiangsu (who also attended today’s event) are likely to lead business delegation to attend the Make in India Week to be organized in Mumbai from February 13-18.

8. Today’s event was the first in a series of business seminars which was organized by the Consulate General of India in Shanghai and will be followed up with similar such sector specific business seminars in Zhejiang and Jiangsu during the course of the year.

13 January 2016
Shanghai

Enclosures:
1) Programme Outline of the Event