MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ambitious Uruguayan trade and investment incursion to India

Vice-president Danilo Astori leads the 60 member strong delegation

Considered one of the most ambitious trade and investment incursions to Asia, a delegation of Uruguayan business people headed by Vice-president Danilo Astori begins Saturday a seven-day official visit to India.

“In Uruguay we attach great importance to the visit. It is ground breaking and a great challenge. The most significant bilateral visit in the last twelve years” Uruguay's Ambassador to India Cesar Ferrer is quoted by India’s news agency.

“During the visit we expect to sign an agreement on double taxation and another for cooperation in renewable energy”, added Ambassador Ferrer.

Astori and the 60-member strong delegation arrive in Mumbai late Saturday from where they will travel to Chennai, before concluding in Delhi.

Last Wednesday in Montevideo, Astori with Indian Ambassador R. Viswanathan released a postal stamp on Rabindranath Tagore to mark the 150th birth anniversary of the Nobel laureate.

The delegation includes Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining, Roberto Kreimerman, senior government officials and heads of business chambers.

'It is the largest that Uruguay has ever sent to India and it is one of the largest that has been sent out to a foreign country... For our size, a 60-member delegation is quite big,' said Ferrer.

Indian companies have made significant investments in Uruguay, which is described by the Indian news agency “as one of the most developed economies in the continent, with a population of 3.5 million”.

In 2002, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) opened a global delivery centre in Montevideo, which employees a local staff of 900. It was the first centre by the Indian telecom giant in South America, catering to the large Spanish-speaking market, especially in the United States. Thereafter, Geodesic also opened a software development centre.

In the latest development, a mining company, Zammin Ferrous is reported to be prepared to invest over a billion US dollars to start iron-ore mining in Uruguay.

“Coming with sixty people, even if there were not many contacts before, means that there is great interest in the private sector and in government to seek business opportunities in India. We basically want to increase awareness, then the business people will themselves find ways to increase trade”, said Ferrer.

On Monday the Uruguayan leader meets in Mumbai with top representatives from the Tata Group, especially TCS and Tata motors. Later in the day, he will also visit the offices of Aditya Birla Group and Essar Group.

India’s world famous film industry at Bollywood also figures in the Uruguayan agenda. “We have officials from the Uruguayan film commission and promotion board in the delegation and we have scheduled meetings with senior members of the Indian film industry”, said Ferrer.

The following day, Astori meets with the Exim bank board officials to explore financing possibilities for Indian companies to participate in projects in Uruguay.

In Chennai on Feb 23, Astori will inaugurate TCS's 250 million USD building in Siruseri, which has been designed by renowned Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott.

Chennai has a broad industrial base in the automobile, computer, technology, hardware manufacturing, and healthcare industries. The city is India's second largest exporter of software, information technology and information-technology-enabled services. A major chunk of India's automobile industry is based in and around the city.

Astori will also be taken to the industrial plant of Indian wind energy firm, RRB energy.

In Delhi Thursday the Uruguayan leader holds formal discussions with Indian Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, and meets with the Lok Sabha speaker, Meira Kumar. Finally Friday the Astori and Kreimerman will be the main speakers at an important business seminar.