Advertisment

German and Indian SMEs to increase collaboration

author-image
CIOL Bureau
Updated On
New Update

BANGALORE: The India-Germany bilateral trade, which reached $5.4 billion last year, will see further movement with the German Ministry for Economics & Labor, drawing out plans to bring together SMEs of India and Germany to collaborate and work closely to harness each other strengths. Govt. of Germany Federal Ministry of Economics & Labor Dept. of innovation & technology head Dr. Rainer Jaekel stated this, while addressing a press conference on the sidelines of Bangalore IT.COM.

Advertisment

Expressing satisfaction at the growing knowledge among companies in India and Germany, he said, "A series of forums are planned in the two countries to primarily focus on areas where the SME sectors can leverage and collaborate on their expertise."

To illustrate this, he added, "There are currently 3.3 million SME's in Germany of which 2, 00,000 focus on creating new products and 34,000 enterprises working on R&D. Large German companies are already in India building software and processes for the global market reaping the benefit of high skilled labor with cost advantage. We believe that the same should be made available to the SME's in Germany. Forums engaging companies to explore possibilities of working closely with each other are critical".

According to Dr. Jaekel, IT, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and chemicals are some of the areas that the SME sector of Germany and India should immediately begin engagement in. The high level delegation will go on to Mumbai to explore opportunities for German companies in the Indian biotech, pharmaceutical and chemical industry.

He further stated that there was a growing synergy between the businesses and research fraternity of the two countries and identified the IT industry as a promising sector for further cooperation. He however stressed that the challenge would be on how quickly the two countries will overcome the barriers still existing and get down to business.

Commenting on the business scenario in Germany, Frankfurt Economic Development GmbH executive director Sibylle Herforth, "Frankfurt has become India's preferred investment location in Germany, with about 40 Indian IT companies. Presently, we are talking to four companies who are on their way to Frankfurt."

tech-news