Gov Quinn for stronger Illinois-India business ties

L to R Mohan Rao Dandmudi, Gov Pat Quinn, Ashok Kumar Attri and Ram Thukaram

CHICAGO: Illinois Governor Pat Quinn pitched for an increased level of trade relations not only between Illinois and India but also between USA and India saying that the world's oldest and the world's largest democracies have good number of things in common like enormous entrepreneurial energy and independent judicial system.

Addressing a meeting of US India Business Forum 2009, organized by US India Chamber of Commerce for Mid West at the Kellogg school of Management in Chicago Downtown, he praised India for its relative performance of Indian economy in the face of global economic problems and observed that both the countries should harness "entrepreneurial energy for mutual benefit."

In this context he suggested that the State of Illinois and India should institutionalize regular annual visits both ways in alternate years and added that he will work to realize this idea. He also felt that like in the case of Japan, a Mid West USA-India forum could be developed later for this alternate annual interaction.

Welcoming the opportunity to address the US India Business Forum 2009, he referred to the book "The World is Flat" by Tom Friedman and   said that "in the globalize economy, we are all neighbors." He indicated that his administration will be aggressive and progressive in international trade and will try to keep overseas trade offices functioning. He believed in keeping the Illinois economy open as protectionism was not the right path to tackle the economic slowdown.

He also emphasized that "sustainability" should be the watchword in activities and cooperation in all sectors including in the sectors being discussed in the US India Business Forum 2009 of USICC for Mid West, namely, aviation, retail and telecommunications.

Technologies and processes should be made environment friendly and environment and water experts and businessmen should interconnect. Emphasizing his strong commitment to environment and water management, he felt there is scope of cooperation between Illinois and India in these areas. As an example, he added that due to his emphasis on diverse uses of soybean like in producing plastics and fuel, besides food, he has been nicknamed "Mr. Soybean" by his supporters.

Gov. Quinn emphasized the importance of state of the art telecommunication to address the issue of terrorism as well as during natural disasters like the ice storm in southern Illinois last winter when the emergency management did a great job using the best communication system.

Another area of possible greater cooperation with India according to Gov. Quinn was with institutions of higher learning as Illinois has many great universities like the University of Illinois, and interaction among experts in water management, environment, and infrastructure development etc. can be strengthened."

Mohan Rao Dandmudi, vice president of the Chambers, introduced Governor Pat Quinn to the 100 plus members of the audience. Many of the participants represented American companies. Mohan Rao in his brief introduction, said that he has known the governor for the past many years and he would not be wrong if he says that the" governor is a role model for many other elected office bearers in the country".  He was an ideal governor and he was sure that Indo-Illinois business ties would be strengthened under his administration.

Indian Consul General Ashok Kumar Attri earlier paid handsome tribute to the governor saying "your State maintains a resident office in New Delhi and has sent a number of business delegations to India in the recent years. The upswing in trade and investments both ways has been not only an outcome of these efforts but also an indicator of the complimentarily and strong future of our economic ties."

Attri further added that "your deep interest in careful and scientific harnessing of water resources and environment friendly new and efficient energy technologies also have strong relevance to Indian focus on these areas. I look forward to working with both the Government and the private sector of Illinois to further consolidate our ties across the board."

Attri also complemented the leadership of USICC for organizing this Forum and for choosing three very relevant themes for the three panels, specially to Illinois and Midwest, which have strong sectors of aviation, retail and telecom.

In the aviation field, he observed that India is today perhaps the largest growing aviation story in the face of a global shrinkage of this sector, which naturally gives unprecedented opportunity to not only aircraft manufacturers like Chicago headquartered Boeing, but also to all the linked industries like airport construction or modernization, avionics upgradation and management of infrastructure, operations and services in aviation sector.

In the retail sector, he pointed out, important advances are taking place in India and upgradation of distribution chain operations, cold chain operations and its management have strong opportunities. India is focusing on post harvest technologies and distribution infrastructure of the processed foodstuff as well as management of the same.

Telecom opportunities in India are immense in the world. Citing some figures, he said that cell phone connections have reached a huge proportion of 400 millions and the market is still growing at a breathtaking speed of 10 to 12 million new cell phones connections every month. For the next several years, this growth is expected to continue and a host of opportunities are beaconing everyone involved in any aspect of telecom sector, he added.

Even in this difficult global economic scenario, Indian economy has retained its buoyancy. Indian economy registered a growth of 6.7% last fiscal year which ended this March. Our stock market remains strong. Indian banks are in the pink of health. Foreign Direct Investment in April stood at $ 2.34 billion, nearly 20% higher than last year, a sign of strong confidence in Indian economy. Overall FDI last year was $ 27.30 billion - significantly higher than previous year.

Ram Thukaram Chairman of the six years old US India Chambers of Commerce Mid West, talked about the consistent efforts made by his organization in promoting bilateral trade relation between Illinois- Mid West region and India over the past few years and hinted that the need of the time is to go national slowly.

The Chamber would like to expand to neighboring states like Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan and other places and then slowly get national. He also mentioned that his executive committee planned opening an office in Chicago downtown manned by qualified staff, including a Secretary.

He said that funding was a problem as with many such organizations and that it is up to the community to support an agency like US India Chambers of Commerce. He indicated that a golf outing, as was done in previous years, is planned this summer too.

In a talk to India Post, he said that the organization like this thrived more on one-to-one relationship and that this would mean that a smaller number of participants with an interest in serious business relationship would be a better way of promoting business ties rather than aiming for large conferences.

Present on the occasion among other office bearers was Rajeev Ranjan who proposed a vote of thanks at the end. Among panelists in the aviation discussion were Raj Siddhu of American Airlines and Sam Khaja of Jet Airways. The retail panel was moderated by Aradhana Goel while panelists were Gaurav Bhuvan, L.N. Balaji and Gunjan Bagla. Emily Brinkmoller was the coordinator.

India Post News Service