By Prasun Sonwalkar
London, Sep 26 (IANS) Northern Ireland has been better known in India for trouble and turbulence, but is fast emerging as one of the most prominent trading regions of Britain with Indian companies investing there and Northern Ireland companies winning major contracts in India.
Trade relations between Northern Ireland and India have become two-way traffic. Sounds of blasts and gunfire have given way to the tenor of currency as Indian firms such as HCL Technologies and Firstsource set up offices and BPO centres.
A prominent India-origin industrialist in the region, Lord Diljit Rana, who is also India’s Honorary Consul in Northern Ireland, has facilitated the interaction between Northern Ireland and India.
The latest development is that Omagh-based Telestack International has been contracted to supply its unique telescopic conveying equipment to an iron ore mining operation in Goa. The company has won a 300,000 pounds contract for a tracked conveyor system.
The contract is the company’s first business in India, and follows its participation in an Invest Northern Ireland trade mission earlier this year. The contract is with Fomento Industrial PVT, one of Goa’s biggest mining operators. Invest Northern Ireland is a regional economic development agency.
Telestack will supply machinery for stockpiling and then loading ore onto vessels for transportation to steel plants, particularly in Japan. The contract was announced by Philip Waddell, Telestack’s international sales manager, who took part in the Invest Northern Ireland trade mission in 2006.
The latest Invest NI trade mission is led by Lord Rana and is currently in India (Sep 23-28). Thirteen Northern Ireland companies are taking part, including seven visiting India for the first time.
Waddell, commenting on Telestack’s contract in Goa, said: “India has been a strategic target market for us and the trade mission was a great vehicle to develop distribution networks and contacts. It has a developing mining industry, which offers substantial scope for our range of machinery.
“Our ability to customise our equipment to suit the client’s specific needs helped us gain the business. The dual purpose mobile conveying system can be used for stockpiling and barge-loading at rates of 1,200 tonnes per hour.
“The Invest NI trade mission enabled us to visit Goa and other mining centres such as Orissa. We were helped by Invest NI’s Asia Trade Team to identify a potential partner in India and then the trade mission in March introduced us to key contacts and set up meetings with them.
“We subsequently followed up a number of contacts and were invited by Fomento to help them deal with stockpiling and barge-loading issues. They were impressed by the solution that we proposed and signed the deal for our telescopic stockpiling machinery. Further orders are in the pipeline. With the Fomento contract we now have a reference site in India to demonstrate the quality, flexibility and innovation of our machinery to other operators,” he added.
Alan Hingston, Invest NI’s Director of Trade, said: “This is an extremely important contract for Telestack International which, I am confident, will lead to further success in India.
“We’ve been working closely for some time with our quarrying, screening and mining machinery companies to help them to exploit the huge opportunities from India’s vast reserves of coal, iron ore, bauxite, manganese, limestone and other minerals. As a result of this focus, many companies have already secured significant business from mining operations and also from projects to improve India’s infrastructure.
“Furthermore, India is fast becoming a key market for Northern Ireland companies across a range of sectors including IT, biotechnology and consumer products. Initiatives which we are planning will provide additional support to companies to seize the massive business opportunities in what is now one of the world’s most dynamic markets.”
Meanwhile, five Northern Ireland companies and Lord Rana have been short-listed in the UK-India Awards to be announced next week at a gala event in Mumbai. The firms listed have all used Invest NI trade missions to access opportunities in India.
They include Andor Technology, Belfast; CDE Ireland, Cookstown; FG Wilson, Larne; ICS Computing, Belfast; Savile Row, Castledawson and Singularity, Londonderry. Lord Rana, who has led a series of missions to India for Invest NI, is listed in two categories – Business Person of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year.
In addition, several Indian companies with operations in Northern Ireland are also listed – Firstsource, which has set up in Belfast and Derry; HCL, which has contact centres in Belfast and Armagh; Pix Transmission that acquired Flexequip of Lisburn earlier this year and Tech Mahindra, which recently announced a software business in Belfast. They are listed alongside some of India’s biggest firms including the Tata Group, Wipro, Infosys and Reliance.
The winners will be announced at a televised awards dinner and ceremony at the Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai Sep 27. A conference – “UK-India: Partners in Globalisation” – will take place on the same day. This will feature global speakers and attract an audience of over 300 business leaders.
Mivan, the Antrim civil engineering business, gained an award last year. Launched in October 2005, the awards acknowledge and celebrate the successful business partnerships being developed between India and Britain. The awards are sponsored by UK Trade and Investment.
Hingston said: “The list shows the strength of interest developing in Northern Ireland in the huge Indian marketplace. Also worth noting is the spread of industries that the nominated firms represent, from machinery to software and consumer goods.
“Most of the companies now have operations in India and are doing good business in what is one of the world’s most vibrant markets, a market offering huge opportunities for Northern Ireland.”