CAIRO: “There is a word coined in the United States – if you were ‘Bangalored’ it means you lost your job, said Ramachandara Seshagiri, president of Hitork, an Indian gears and gear parts-maker, addressing an audience of Egyptian businessmen on Wednesday.
The confidence couched in Seshagiri’s remark was on full display as his 26-member delegation sponsored by the Engineering Export Promotional Council of India arrived armed with brochures and business cards to mingle with their Egyptian counterparts in the Conrad Hotel this week.
“The world has become very small. There is no way that will change, Seshagiri told Daily News Egypt during the meeting’s “matchmaking session, where delegates looked for business partners. “A buyer is able to locate a seller in no time.
With its proximity to African and European markets and millennia-old trade relationship with India, Egypt is a natural place for Indian businesses to search for such connections, he said.
The two ancient nations have enjoyed a generally sympathetic relationship over the past century, as both struggled to rid themselves of British colonialism and, later, collaborated on the Non-Aligned Movement, which sought to distance member countries from the American and Soviet poles of influence during the Cold War.
While trade is a bit more prosaic now than when mummies were wrapped in Indian muslin – the bulk of it now consists of oil and gas – it has shown recent signs of strength. Between 2003 and 2007, Indian-Egyptian trade more than quadrupled; it is now stretching into fields like information technology.
It has not always been smooth. Egypt imposed steep, though temporary, tariffs on Indian tea and restrictions on some of India’s meat imports over the past decade, for instance.
Now, as the economic downturn sets into Western markets, opportunities for trade between Egypt and India are growing, Seshagiri said. “The food industry, I think is doing extremely well in Egypt, he said. “Anything to do with food and agricultural I believe can sell very well in Egypt.
“Local consumption, local demand is always very high, he added.
The Indian delegation will travel next to Ghana. During the matchmaking session, Seshagiri said he hoped business would be brisker in Egypt than in Tunisia, their previous stop. Only two Indian suppliers signed contracts there, evidence of that country’s small size and trade agreements that allow it customs-free imports of many European products, he said.
“If you really want to grow two countries’ trade, first you have to work on the customs tariff, he said, chuckling.
The Indian delegates came hawking goods as diverse as landing wheels, dump trucks, electrodes and mining rigs. Many of them developed and manufactured their own products, as Iqbal Maniar, the vice president of Maniar & Co., eagerly pointed out while flipping through a brightly-colored catalog of his company’s garbage trucks.
“This is our own innovation, this is our own innovation, this is our own innovation, he said pointing to the models. “These things you will never find elsewhere in the world.
His company is getting popular in India and has recently started exporting to Africa, Maniar said. He is now looking for an Egyptian agent to set up a sales office here, he said.
The booth for Varun, a kitchenware company, displayed similar ambitions. The company already sells in Egypt, but sales here are still slow compared to business in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Ghana, said Vijay Daga, a general manager at Varun.
He said he came to Egypt looking for more buyers, especially from supermarket chains. “What do I want? he said. “I want to make their cuisine more beautiful. This is what I’m looking for.
Asked about the large number of sellers, Seshagiri was quick to say that the delegates were not only looking to export. “No, no, no. It is a business cooperation visit, he said. “We are looking at both to and from – buying from Egypt and also selling into Egypt.
But were there any specific opportunities for Egyptian firms to export engineering goods to India? “Not yet. We are going to have a discussion on that later in the evening, he said. “Trade can only flourish both ways.
