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A
Special Moment for TCF
For Joseph Koch, Director of Swiss
Business Hub, India is like a second
home. During his earlier stint with
the Swiss Embassy in New Delhi in
the 1980s he watched a stagnant India,
where the rule of a 'Licence Raj'
prevailed. And now, placed in Mumbai,
India's vibrant commercial capital,
Koch is witness to the wonderful metamorphosis
of the country turning into an economic
powerhouse. In an address delivered
at the launch of the Open Trade magazine,
Koch talks about the economic reforms
initiated in the early 1990s by the
then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh,
who is Prime Minister today. Improving
bilateral trade has always been Koch's
passion. To achieve this end, he has
always been finding ways and means
and he has the knack of discovering
many. Koch is the spirit behind Open
Trade, believing sincerely that such
a magazine, besides highlighting TCF's
own concerns, will in its own way
contribute to the promotion of India's
bilateral trade. In the absence of
TCF's current President Vittorio Mecozzi,
Italian Trade Commissioner, Koch,
Past President of the Forum, presented
a short history and objectives of
the Trade Commissioners Forum, based
in Mumbai and the launch of Open Trade.
Excerpts.
It is a really special
moment today for us Trade Commissioners.
Not only just the idea of having our
own magazine sounded some years ago
as a project in the air - but with
the support of New Media Communications
we have come very far and have launched
the first edition of OPEN TRADE.
Please let me first give you a short
glance of the Trade Commissioners
Forum and Its uniqueness. As in many
other cities and economic centres
in this world, diplomats of the various
embassies and consulates are in charge
of trade promotions and secure the
link between local trade and the countries
they represent. So, this was also
the case here in Mumbai until In 2001,
when this group was founded. In those
days it was Doug Paterson from Canada
who assembled Trade Commissioners
from Australia, Western Australia,
China, Flanders, Germany, Israel,
Japan, Korea, Mauritius, Poland, Russia,
South Africa, Switzerland and USA
- all five continents represented.
Needless to say, that this Forum is
unique in the world. Never did I hear
in my career of over 30 years of an
existence of such a group, of such
an organization. Out intention is
to bring the products of our countries
to India, The question is simply how?
And where do we source the information.
And this is the job of our committee.
We are approached by members of the
Forum of certain problems their countrymen
are facing and we take the matter
up and - as it is in most case; there
is not just one country involved:
Therefore, we call on guest speakers
and have interactive sessions with
decision makers in the government.
But, we are just sitting idle behind
our desks. We are traveling in the
South of India, where most of our
colleagues have their consular jurisdiction.
We meet Chambers of Commerce, Trade
Bodies and companies. We have to smell
the soil, we have to visualize the
potential of certain areas, we have
to meet local people and get their
opinions because, all of us are generally
the first point of contact, the first
source of information for business
people from our respective countries
who have plans to come to India, of
course, we are in many ways also competing
against each other but all this is
in a friendly way, because we are
sourcing business opportunities, forwarding
them to our headquarters and let them
work out the criteria requested. Having
sat many times on the dais, I know
that not only in Switzerland is chocolate
produced, not only in Poland is heavy
machinery produced, not only in Italy
do they have fashion designers...
Just to mention sport activities -
as today three friends of the TCF
are watching football games in group
G: France, South Korea and Switzerland.
We are sitting together today and
tomorrow as well...
Please give me also a few minutes
to talk about India our country of
residence. Having served with the
Swiss embassy in Delhi from 1980 to
1984, I think I have the chance to
compare the situation in the 1980s
and 2006. And if we look even further
back, the time of partition, I must
congratulate you Indians on the way
you have been able to manage your
economy, breaking out of a long spell
of stagnation. Earlier, the bureaucrats
had the say. You needed for every
product a licence. I remember very
clearly that during the 80s, there
were two cars available and the waiting
list running up to five years. You
had the rigid rules of foreign exchange
when houses were raided because they
were hoping to find some dollar notes
or foreign liquor. But... you have
developed into a prosperous nation
since 1993 when the actual Prime Minister
took over the finance portfolio and
opened up India to globalization as
a respectable business partner. The
first sign of the smart looking IT
specialists draw the attention around
the world of India's existence and
now India has the largest business
potential in the world. Just to mention
Bharat Forge, which is providing 35
percent of the world's car market
with gear boxes etc.
Koch thanked Exim Bank and New Media
for providing an opportunity to Trade
Commissioners to participate in the
interaction session and to make their
presentations.
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