By KUNA
New Delhi : The four-day fifth ‘International Land and Naval Systems Exhibition Def Expo 2008’ at the Indian capital ended Tuesday with the country’s Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh terming the exposition as a major success. Addressing the valedictory session here this evening, Rao Inderjit Singh said: “DefExpo 2008 has been bigger and better. It has helped India to evaluate its position vis-@-vis the other countries in the field of technology. It has helped us evaluate how far we have climbed up the ladder to be at par with other countries”.
“The DefExpo has helped the exhibitors to know that that India was ready to absorb the quantum of offset. Not only would the Defence Public Sector Undertakings be absorbing the offsets but the private sector would also gain from it. It has also helped the other countries to understand out procurement procedure. Small scale and the medium scale industry was eager to absorb the offsets,” the Minister added.
The exposition was inaugurated by India’s Defence Minister A K Antony on February 16.
The Def Expo was conceptualised in 1998 by the Department of Defence Production of India’s Defence Ministry with an objective to promote defence exports from India and at the same time exhibit the capabilities of Indian Defence RD and production. Dedicated to global land and naval systems business activity – from suppliers to manufacturers, technology providers to services – it allows the international defence industry to promote and showcase their products and services to an international ness audience. First time in this edition of Defexpo, both Telecom and IT companies showcased their products and services. At least 47 Official Delegations visited Defexpo 2008 including six Ministerial delegations from Afghanistan, Belarus, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia and Nigeria. A major highlight of this year’s DefExpo was 16 seminars to enable exhibitors to make technology and product specific presentations to target audience from Indian Defence establishments, RD Institutions, visiting official delegations, Defence Public Sector Undertakings, Ordnance Factories and Indian Industry. International participation in Defexpo 2008 was from over 30 countries — UAE, Australia, Belarus, Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Norway, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, The Netherlands, UK, Ukraine and the USA — displaying an array of technology and new products.