Georgetown Chamber, Indian export facilitating body sign wideranging deal
The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) will be seeking to utilize the recently completed memorandum between itself and the Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) to make maximum use of such opportunities as may arise for cooperation and partnership for investment and trade.
Whilst Stabroek Business was unable to secure a timely comment on the significance of the completion of the MOU with one of India’s most influential commerce and trade facilitation bodies, the official who spoke with the Stabroek Business on condition of anonymity said that he expected that the partnership will be used as a mechanism to provide trade and technical cooperation opportunities for local business houses who are members of the Chamber.
Stabroek Business has seen a copy of the MOU which lists renewable energy, pharmaceuticals, tourism, agroprocessing, ICT and the film industry as areas in which the Indian Federation and the Georgetown Chamber “will encourage and assist their respective enterprises to cooperate with their counterparts in the form of joint ventures and other business arrangements.”
The fifty-three-year-old FIEO was created under the aegis of India’s Ministry of Commerce, as an organization designed to help coordinate the work of India’s export promotion organizations. FIEO has been serving as a platform for interaction between exporters and policymakers, and has been instrumental in promoting the efforts of the Indian exporting community. It is an ISO 9001-2008 certified Organization.
The main objective of FIEO is to render an integrated package of services to various organizations connected with export promotion. It functions as a primary servicing agency to provide integrated assistance to its over 20,000 members comprising professional exporting firms holding recognition status granted by the Government of India, consultancy firms and service providers.
The MOU also makes provision for the two parties to plan and execute exchange visits by investment and trade missions and study groups between Guyana and India and cooperate in planning and executing exhibitions, buyer-seller meets, symposia, seminars, workshops and displays of product samples. The MOU also seeks to realise the creation of reciprocal links through each other’s websites and seeks to develop cooperation “in the areas of local marketing services including recommendations on prices”.