North Dakota trade delegation to visit India

Al Anderson, Commissioner, North Dakota Department of Commerce (on the Left) and Consul General of India  Dr Ausaf Sayeed
Al Anderson, Commissioner, North Dakota Department of Commerce (on the Left) and Consul General of India
Dr Ausaf Sayeed

CHICAGO: A high-level North Dakota trade delegation headed either by Lt Governor Drew Wrigley or Governor Jack Dalrymple is likely to visit India in February-March 2016 to promote trade relations between India and North Dakota, according to Indian Consulate sources here.

The delegation, which would also include Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring and several leading business persons from North Dakota, is expected to visit cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Amritsar. Ahmedabad and possibly Bhopal and Hyderabad.

This is sequel to a recent visit of Dr Ausaf Sayeed, Consul General of India in Chicago and D.B. Bhati, Consul (Commercial) to North Dakota early this month. The Indian CG assured that his office would extend all possible assistance to make the visit of the ND trade mission to India a great success.

He exuded confidence and optimism that the proposed visit of high-level ND delegation to India would usher new partnerships between the US and Indian companies in different areas.

During his visit to North Dakota early this month, Dr Sayeed had useful interactions with Drew Wrigley, Lt. Governor of the State of North Dakota; Al Anderson, Commissioner, North Dakota Department of Commerce; Tom Bodine, Deputy Agriculture Commissioner and Dean Gorder, Executive Director, North Dakota Trade Office (NDTO), besides faculty members of North Dakota State University (NDSU) and several business leaders, agriculturists and members of professional bodies.

Dr Sayeed began with a visit to a local soybean processing facility- Sinner Bros. & Bresnahan (SB&B) which produces a full line of non-GMO soybean varieties after extensive research in the field followed by which he visited NDSU’s Agricultural and Bio-systems Engineering department, where he was apprised of the research being done in precision agricultural technologies and Unmanned Aviation Systems (UAS). He also attended a presentation given by BioPro Power organization on the production of renewable energy by using byproducts of agriculture crops as biomass fuels.

The Consul General also gave a presentation at NDTO office in Fargo on the topic ‘India – Ushering in reforms’ to a group of prominent business persons, legal professionals and members of NDTO.

The Indian CG had detailed discussions with Lt. Governor Drew Wrigley, who is also the Chairman of North Dakota Trade Office (NDTO), during which he gave a briefing on the positive economic climate in India and the series of initiatives that are being undertaken by the Indian government to facilitate investment and business by simplification of procedures and investment regulations. This would make India a land that offers extraordinary opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors, he observed.

Lt. Governor Drew Wrigley said there are vast opportunities for partnership between the Indian and US companies in the fields of agriculture, coal and energy. He mentioned that North Dakota has vast coal reserves and is the second largest oil producing state in United States. Indian companies may take advantage of the research and innovations being made in North Dakota in these areas.

The two sides identified the fields of oil & gas, renewable energy, including wind energy & biomass, value-added agriculture, manufacturing, innovation and technology as potential areas for increasing economic collaboration and partnership between Indian and US companies.

Ramesh Soparawala
India Post News Service