The Hindu Business Line : Trade fair off to impressive start

THE two-week long India International Trade Fair on Thursday got off to a glittering start with major corporates, from both India and abroad, displaying their variegated wares for trade promotion and commercial cooperation.

Inaugurating the annual trade fair, the twenty-second in a series, the Vice-President, Mr Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, lauded the efforts to strike a balance between promoting trade and investment as also strengthening small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which have done exceedingly well both in domestic and international markets. He urged the domestic trade and industry to strive for excellence to cope with the challenges of competition posed by the globalisation of production and trade.

The chief guest for this year, Mr Alfanso Dulanti, Minister of Mining, Government of Chile, lauded the growth and progress of India in frontier areas and cutting-edge technology and said that his country looked forward to strong commercial relations with New Delhi.

The Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Mr Rajiv Pratap Rudy, stressed the need to evolve a judicious blend of technology investment in infrastructure sectors of power, transport and communications. He said the business achievements at this fair were the best indices of the distance traversed in economic reforms, besides being a vindication of the efforts to achieve greater levels of value-addition in exports.

Besides substantial export orders and enquiries, a number of MoUs for two-way technology transfers would be among the positive features of this fair. Over 7,000 firms from Indian and 25 countries abroad are taking part in the fair and the special displays include Techmart, Hudco-Buildtech, Saras, and Good Living comprising a wide range of products and services, including engineering, automobiles, telecommunications, jute, rubber, handicrafts, jewellery, consumer goods and other sectors.

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