The Hindu Business Line : Baltic Sea Region invites Indian cos

Hyderabad, Dec. 8 The Baltic Sea Region offers Indian companies an investment climate that is attractive and also the advantage to leverage the bigger markets in Russia and CIS countries.

Sweden, Finland and Denmark (Nordic nations), Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania constitute the Baltic Sea Region countries, with a small but highly consumptive combined consumer strength of 100 million.

On a mission to attract investments from Indian corporates, a team was in Hyderabad, interacting with information technology, pharma and life sciences companies.

Good avenues

The highly developed clusters in biotech, pharma, telecom and clean technology offer good opportunities for Indian companies to tap, said Ms Annika Rembe, representing Sweden, and Ms Katri Jokinen from enterprise Estonia.

Already 50 Indian companies, with the likes of Wipro, TCS, Satyam, Bharat Forge, IndoRama, L&T, and Biocon have their presence in these countries.

The three non-Nordic countries also have exclusive economic development zones, with several tax incentives, they told newspersons here today.

They also held discussions with companies like Gland Pharma, Tanla, Exensys etc.

Sweden is contemplating to set up an office in South India, most likely in Bangalore to strengthen its efforts.

Many Swedish companies are also looking for opportunities to expand, Ms Annika Rembe said.