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R.Y. Narayanan

Codissia had been pressing EEPC to include Coimbatore in the itinerary of foreign buyers since there were a large number of engineering companies here producing quality components.

COIMBATORE, Jan. 27

THE Coimbatore District Small Industries Association (Codissia) is to focus on making Coimbatore region a global outsourcing hub for engineering components.

It is making a conscious effort to motivate its members to qualify for ISO 9000 series standards so as to measure up to the expectations of potential buyers from abroad.

The Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC), with which Codisissia has been interacting to bring foreign delegates to Coimbatore, has been impressed by the capability of this region showcased during the one-day Euro India conference held in the city last week. EEPC has now lined up a visit of delegates from NAFTA region in February to the city.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Tee Narayanaswami, President, Codissia said a Canadian college has invited the association to make a visit to the country to explore the business opportunities there and a Codissia delegation will be visiting Canada in September this year.

He said during the one-day show delegates from countries such as the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, the Czech Republic etc gained an exposure to the immense potential of this region for manufacture of quality engineering components.

Although the Coimbatore region has a sizeable export presence in engineering components sector, the exhibition provided an opportunity for the industries of this region to gain exposure to Europe market, which outsourced a significant portion of its component needs from countries such as China, Australia and the US etc.

A major thrust of the exhibition was on castings like aluminium castings, grey iron castings, malleable iron castings, SG iron castings, agricultural machinery, metal fabrication, precision machinery parts, auto components, textile machinery parts and pumps.

Mr Narayanaswami said till now, EEPC used to bring delegates from abroad on purchase missions to places like Delhi and Mumbai but Coimbatore did not figure in their itinerary.

Codissia had been pressing EEPC to include Coimbatore since there were a large number of engineering companies that were producing quality components and the visit of foreign buyers would provide a valuable exposure to them. He said the city also boasted of Rapid Prototype facilities that enabled production of prototypes of designs very quickly.

Mr D. Gandhikumar, former President, Codissia, said many of the foreign delegates, after their interaction with the participants in the show, also visited factories in this region. During the exhibition more than 3000 xerox copies of designs were made in a single day.

He expected the participants who had interacted with the foreign buyers to receive the engineering designs for the products they intended to buy and move up to the stage of holding discussions on pricing etc before the export orders were firmed up.

He felt that these could be completed in the next 3 - 6 months. In some cases, where the companies have already an export presence, the time lag would be less.

Mr Gandhikumar said EEPC was so impressed with the favourable response from the delegates that it has now decided to bring delegates from NAFTA region, visiting the country next month, to Coimbatore.

Mr Narayanaswami said Codissia has decided to focus on the export market and it would interact with several export organisations in the country in its efforts to make the city a global outsourcing hub for engineering components of diverse industries.

It was also trying to impress upon its members to acquire ISO 9000 series Certifications so that the intending buyers from abroad were convinced of the product processes followed.

In fact, many foreign buyers insisted that their suppliers should have ISO 9000 series certifications.

At present, he said, only about 15 per cent of the active Codissia members had this and Codissia was impressing upon the certifying agencies to bring down the cost of certification to a reasonable level in a bid to encourage more members to go for it.

He said Codissia has been invited by Cambrian College in Canada to explore the business opportunities in their country in areas such as environmental protection and pollution control, machinery and IT.

A Codissia delegation is expected to visit Canada in September this year in response to this invitation.

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