Interactive Meeting with H E Mr Ehud Olmert, Hon'ble Deputy Prime Minister of Industry, Trade & Labour of Israel
December 8, 2004, New Delhi

Address by Mr Y K Modi, President, FICCI

HE Mr. Ehud Olmert, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Industry, Trade and Labour
Shri Kamal Nathji, Hon'ble Minister of Commerce & Industry, Govt of India
Distinguished Delegates
Ladies & Gentlemen;

I am honoured to welcome you this afternoon to the joint gathering of Indian and Israeli businessmen.

We have had a good session in the morning and I am sure, the Business Session later would have borne fruit for building stronger business ties between our countries.
I may mention here that when I was in Israel earlier this year with our the then Commerce & Industry Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley, the meetings organized by FICCI, led to the culmination of signing of four MOUs between the companies.

We are thankful to our Hon'ble Minister for Commerce & Industry, Shri Kamal Nathji, to be with us this afternoon and are looking forward to hearing your views on the way ahead "as partners in progress".

Currently, India is Israel's ninth largest trading partner, world wide and second largest trading partner in Asia. Israel ranks 14th in terms of cumulative FDI flows into India.

Our trade crossed US$1.5 billion in 2003-04 growing by nearly 25% over the previous year. We are looking forward to it touching the US $2.5 billion by next year. We are sure that the setting up of the Israel Trade Centre in Mumbai, would help in enhancing the volume of our bilateral trade.

Further, with the setting up of the joint R&D fund of US $2 million initially between India and Israel Government to catalyse trade ties, FICCI looks forward to the role it can play in making it effective. Technological cooperation integrating the advantages of both sides into mutual business and investment should only lead to further increasing the scope of our bilateral trade.

There are several Joint Ventures between Indian and Israeli companies. These JVs are mainly in the sectors of agriculture, telecommunications, software and medical equipment. Israel's famous drip irrigation systems are jointly manufactured in 3 different locations in India. In telecommunications there is production of high-speed modems, voice-mail systems and fiber optic, and in software, few Israeli companies have set up their offices as well as R&D centers in India. Also technology transfer cooperation has kept pace with increasing trade volumes with over 150 agreements for either production or distribution of diversified products in India. If we look at the total overall technical collaborations during the last 13 years, the numbers are huge - 7,878.

India is not merely a provider of services. Besides being an outsourcing hub, it has grown into a global manufacturing hub. World corporations are now leveraging its proven skills in product design, reconfiguration and customization with creativity, assured quality and value addition. About 20 percent of Indian automotive production in 2004 was exported to developed countries. We should look at newer areas of collaboration in the knowledge economy.

We congratulate you Sir, for being known throughout the world for having the largest number of patents per capita. A country where the percentage of national investment in research and development from the GDP is the highest in the world.

Renewable energy technologies, power generation from unutilized heat and other energy savings and water saving projects are the sectors where Israel has already developed much expertise. We need to identify and examine such possibilities to promote cooperation between Indian and Israeli companies.

Without taking more time, I would like to welcome our guests once again.

Thank you.