On September 15, 2014, the “India Business Forum” of the Indian Consulate General Frankfurt and the German-Indian Society Düsseldorf took place at the Steigenberger Parkhotel in Düsseldorf under the title “New Government in India: Ease of Doing Business”. As part of the event there was a panel discussion with the participation of Mike D. Batra, Managing Director of Dr. Wamser + Batra GmbH on the topic of German-Indian cooperation in the area of medium-sized businesses.
The event with around 120 participants in the state capital was also supported by various other authorities and organizations, including the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Energy, Industry, SMEs and Crafts of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the city of Düsseldorf, NRW Invest, IHK Düsseldorf, German- Indian Chamber of Commerce and German-India Round Table Düsseldorf. Minister Garrelt Duin was the guest of honor at the event, and the Indian ambassador to Berlin, Vijay Gokhale, was also present.
After the opening by Consul General Raveesh Kumar, Ambassador Gokhale gave an overview of the political and economic announcements of the new government in India during the first 100 days in office, and the associated, expected continuous improvement of the general conditions and the investment climate in India. Minister Duin reiterated the positive impact that recent policy changes in India can have on the investment climate, noting that analysts at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast Indian economy GDP growth of 6,5% in 2015 predict. In order for this to come about, he hopes that the promised reliable, investment-friendly economic and tax framework will be implemented quickly by the new government. Minister Duin underlined the fact that the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which accounted for over 2013% of total German-Indian trade in 25, is the center of German-Indian trade relations in Germany. 23,3% of Indian companies in Germany would be located in NRW, a total of around 100 Indian companies.
The event ended with a panel discussion on the topic “Indian-German cooperation in the SME sector” with panelists from Indian and German companies in the SME sector, who shared their experiences and best practices in German-Indian business. The panelists invited to the discussion were Prof. Dr. Stephan Wnendt, CEO, MLM Medical Labs GmbH, Dr. Sanjay Shrivastava, Plant Manager, Venus Pharma GmbH, Michael H. Wiemann, Managing Director, India-Europe-AL and Mike D. Batra, Managing Director of the India-specialized consultancy Dr. Wamser + Batra GmbH. Various topics were discussed such as personnel development, existing training levels, purchasing and sourcing, working with Indian teams, dealing with Indian customers and setting up sales in India. The discussion participants agreed that the positive signs from the new government have so far provided good impetus for German-Indian business. This would therefore also be a suitable time for German medium-sized businesses to focus more on India as a sales and procurement market. Mike D. Batra commented: “India continues to offer very good growth opportunities for German medium-sized companies. Of course, India remains a major challenge, but one that can definitely be overcome with appropriate preparation.” Finally, Dirk Matter, head of the IGCC's Düsseldorf office, noted that despite the slowdown in the Indian economy and the slight decline in Indo-German trade volume, German investments in India crossed $2013 billion in 1.
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