The Hindu Business Line : Ecuador keen on jatropha expertise

Chennai, March 30 Ecuador is interested in getting Indian know-how for the use of jatropha as bio-fuel, the country’s Ambassador in India, Mr Carlos Abad, told Business Line on Friday.

Mr Abad, who was here in connection with a seminar on doing business with Latin America, organised by the Indo-Latin Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that jatropha was but one of the large number of areas where his country welcomed Indian technology. “Indian technology is labour-intensive, which is what we are looking for,” he said.

Despite India being little known in Ecuador and Ecuador being practically unknown in India, economic relations between the countries are slowly picking up, Mr Abad said. Reliance is buying oil from Ecuador, TCS has a unit there, IRCON won a railway contract recently and ONGC Videsh is looking for some oil blocks, the Ambassador noted.

Ecuador is buying machinery (mainly for sugar production) and automobiles and auto components. Some companies in Ecuador are interested in buying tractors from India. Mr Abad mentioned Ecuador’s interest in buying the Mahindra Scorpio utility vehicle and the Tata Nano. “We would like to buy the Nano, but we have been told that the Tatas want to serve the domestic market first,” he said.

Moreover, a number of Indian companies are buying timber from Ecuador — about 300 container loads of teak wood each month. Yet, no Indian company has come forward to buy forest lands, which is allowed in Ecuador (and indeed, in several countries in South America). “I’ve been telling Indians about this, but nobody seems to be interested,” Mr Abad said.

Connectivity plus

What could give a fillip to economic relations between India and the South American countries is perhaps better connectivity. Now that Emirates has introduced direct flights between Dubai and Sao Paulo (Brazil), it should be easier for Indians travelling to South America, he said.

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