India Expo Draws $40 mn Worth of Biz Enquiries.

That amount is likely to be revised upwards, as it is based on a partial survey by EEPC India of the exhibitor companies at the four-day expo that ended on Thursday. The event was organised by EEPC India as part of the Canadian Manufacturing Technology Show and was meant to showcase India's engineering sector in this country.

A total of 154 engineering firms from India took part in the show, the largest Indian business contingent to visit Canada. According to the EEPC, 90 of them provided immediate feedback about their interactions at the event -- a third said they had identified or appointed agents for their products in Canada at the expo. They said they had made at least 1,800 serious business contacts during the show.

India was a strategic international partner this year at the biennial Canadian event. The India Show was part of a push by the 1955-founded EEPC and the Commerce ministry to explore the Canadian market for Indian engineering goods. While this sector accounted for $60 billion of India's exports last year, only about $360 million worth of those exports were sent to Canada.

With the United States and the European Union, which together account for 40 per cent of India's engineering exports, shrinking significantly in the ongoing slowdown, exporters are eyeing Canada as a new market. Trade between India and Canada is currently less than $5 billion a year, just a tenth of India's trade with the US. The two countries set a target of tripling bilateral trade by 2015, following a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper last year.

Officials at EEPC India expect the true impact of the show to be visible after a couple of years. Aman Chadha, Chairman of EEPC India, points out that a deal could often take a year to be finalised, starting with designing prototypes, sampling, testing and finally moving to an order. "This was an eye-opener for Canadian industry and manufacturers, many didn't know this kind of equipment was being made in India," he says.

With a $40 entry fee, the event only attracted those with serious business enquiries. However, several Indian exhibitors complained that attendance and enquiries fell short of their expectations due to the location of the expo as well as a lack of adequate marketing.

Some of the exhibitors are also going to other Canadian cities like Vancouver and Montreal as part of EEPC's trade delegations. "We're not only coming to sell, we're also going to import technology from Canada," says Chadha.

The engineering sector, he adds, is confident of meeting its export target of $80 billion for FY 2011-12. Even though its major markets, the US and EU, were in the doldrums, Chadha notes emerging markets in Latin America and Africa had expanded enough to compensate, pointing out that engineering exports have grown 110 per cent in the last six months, largely driven by demand from emerging markets.

Source : news.in.msn.com