58 August 2015 www.bahrainthismonth.com india independence Founded in 1895, the CII is India’s leading business organisation with members around the globe. It has been engaged in the GCC for more than 20 years and aims to promote trade, investment and economic co-operation between India and the West Asia region. A non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led and industry-managed organisation, the CII has over 7,800 members from the private as well as public sectors, including SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 200,000 enterprises from around 240 national and regional sectoral industry bodies. It has 66 offices, including nine Centres of Excellence, in India, and seven overseas offices in Australia, China, Egypt, France, Singapore, the UK and the USA, as well as institutional partnerships with 312 counterpart organisations in 106 countries with Bahrain being the latest addition to this impressive list. Raghavan says: “The initiative to open a CII office in Bahrain, to serve the region, was made during the visit of a high level Economic Development Board delegation to the CII Partnership Summit in January, 2014, and during the visit of His Majesty King Hamad to India in February 2014.” An MoU was signed to establish the CII office and an Indo–Bahraini Business Forum to provide continuity to the business activities and in the larger interest of promoting trade and investment between both nations. Raghavan explains: “Internationally, CII works towards providing its membership clearer strategies based on deeper insights and analytical perceptions of emerging realities. At the forefront in helping Indian business connect and interact with global business, CII has activated a multi-pronged strategy for global networking. Meeting heads of state and government, decision makers, networking with counterpart organisations, multilateral and academic institutions and other policy making bodies, CII’s alternate diplomacy ensures continued access to emerging opportunities for its membership. The network of seven overseas offices helps us disseminate vital information related to markets and joint venture possibilities to Indian and foreign companies. “With regard to Indo — Bahrain co-operation, CII’s role will be to promote co-operation between Bahraini and Indian businesspeople in the aspects of business, trade and investment; promote business alliances through identification of possible partners leading to joint ventures; promote CII services to national companies through its various Centres of Excellence which cover areas such as quality, manufacturing excellence, environment and green business; develop synergies with local companies and explore business opportunities in third countries; promote participation in each other’s trade fairs and exhibitions and support each other’s seminars and conferences.” Areas already identified for co-operation between Bahrain and India include: information and communication technology and telecoms; education; healthcare; new technologies including green technology and biotech; food processing and agri business; infrastructure; manufacturing — SME development and services such as banking, financial and logistics A large number of MoUs were signed during His Majesty’s Indian visit in areas from finance to manufacturing and Raghavan concludes: “Our plans for the future are to work strongly to promote co-operation and investment in the above sectors and create success stories of joint ventures and business alliances between India and Bahrain.” His Majesty receives a delegation from the Indian business community CII spokesman CS Raghavan told Bahrain This Month about the role of the newly established office of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in the Kingdom. CII Comes to Bahrain His Majesty King Hamad’s historic visit to India paved the way for the new CII office
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mjk0MTkxMQ==