By P. Vijian, NNN-Bernama,
New Delhi : Indian engineering companies trying to diversify their export base are eyeing Malaysia to promote their home-grown products and services.
“We can’t ignore Malaysia. We want to promote our designs and products to Malaysian companies and to give full exposure to Indian companies,” says R. Maitra, executive director of India’s Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC).
After a successful stint in Europe, Japan and the United States, Indian small and medium-size industries (SMIs) involved in engineering are shifting their sights to developing markets, where demand for engineering technology is growing.
As part of these efforts, about 150 Indian companies will be participating in a three-day Indian engineering exposition, spearheaded by the 14,000-member EEPC, in Kuala Lumpur later this month.
India is becoming a leading player in the sector and Indian technical education institutions produce nearly 300,000 engineers annually.
The engineering sector, the largest segment of the overall Indian industrial sector, is growing robustly at about 33 per cent annually and its exports topped 20 billion USD between 2005 and 2006.
Nearly 60 per cent of the manufacturing is done by SMIs which form the crucial backbone of the Indian economy.
“The engineering sector in India is strong, particular in the manufacturing sector. India has the edge in new technologies and we are now concentrating on Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore,” Maitra said in an interview with Bernama here.
“We want to see possibilities of joint ventures. Growth of trade between Malaysia and India has multiplied and this is the right time.”.
The EEPC, a trade promotion agency set up by the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry, will organise the exposition in Kuala Lumpur fom Sept 25 to 27 for Indian companies from the public sector and SMEs to showcase their products.