Dr. Martin Kuba Czech Minister of Industry and Trade to visit India

Posted on March 6, 2013 by sagarmedia

March 6, 2013

Visit of Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic Dr. Martin Kuba to India, March 11 – 15, 2013
Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic H.E. Mr. Martin Kuba will embark on the historically biggest trade mission of the Czech Republic, which consists of 100 members, to India on March 11 – 15, 2013. Minister Martin Kuba will meet with several ministers and business representatives and inaugurate Czech-India business forums during his visit. Moreover, in Mumbai he will inaugurate together with Commerce Minister H.E. Mr. Anand Sharma the “India Engineering Sourcing Show” (IESS) 2013, to which the Czech Republic is a proud partner country this year.
In Delhi, Mr. Martin Kuba is planning to meet his counterpart, H.E. Mr. Anand Sharma, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Textile, and also other ministers covering a vast portfolio of bilateral interest, such as the area of heavy industry, steel, coal, petroleum, civil aviation, water resources, railways etc. Also, expert meeting of the Joint Working Group of Heavy Engineering will take place in New Delhi and in Mumbai.
On 13 March 2013, Minister Martin Kuba will visit the Skoda Auto India plant in Aurangabad, the Czech flagship company in India, where the famous and reliable Skoda cars are being assembled for the Indian market.
In Mumbai, Minister Martin Kuba will inaugurate the “India Engineering Sourcing Show 2013”, to which the Czech Republic is a partner country this year, and launch the official participation of the Czech Republic at the exhibition. The inauguration of the IESS 2013 will be followed by a lively “Czech evening”, presenting among others the Czech folklore performance by “Gajdoši” folk group and the world-known Czech beer and wine. In Mumbai, Minister Martin Kuba is also going to meet with representatives of the Maharashtra government H.E. Mr. K. Sankaranarayanan, Governor of Maharashtra, H.E. Mr. Prithviraj Chavan, Chief Minister of Maharashtra and H.E. Mr. Narayan Tatu Rane, Minister Industry, Energy and Labor.  
The association of the Czech Republic with the organizer of the India Engineering Sourcing Show – EEPC started already last year during the IESS 2012, when the Czech Republic was preparing to host “India Show“, the highest level of presentation of Indian engineering companies abroad.  Czech side highly appreciated that the Government of India chose the Czech Republic to organise the first ever India Show in the Central and Eastern Europe in the Czech Republic. The India Show was a significant part of “MSV – International Engineering Fair” at Brno in September 2012. Union Minister of Commerce, Industry and Textile H.E. Mr. Anand Sharma led the Indian delegation composed of 135 companies which participated in the show in the Czech Republic.
Minister Martin Kuba´s visit to India is designed to boost the new generation of bilateral Czech – Indian business ties and to establish a new collaboration among the private sectors.
Minister Martin Kuba will come by a special Czech Government aircraft, accompanied by a Member of Parliament, dignitaries from the Ministry of Transportation and a powerful business delegation comprising of 80 prominent Czech companies from sector of engineering (Vítkovice), transportation (AŽD, Škoda Transportation, Bonatrans), energy (FANS) etc., which are bidding for large industrial projects in India. Representatives of main Czech associations (such as engineering or electrotechnical association) and top-level dignitaries from government institutions are also eager to negotiate deepening of the cooperation with promising Indian economy, such as Czech Export Bank, Export Guarantee and Insurance Company or Czech Invest, which is going to sign a MoU with its counterpart Invest India about the future cooperation.
The business delegation will participate at the business seminar in Delhi organized by FICCI and also a business forum in Mumbai organized by EEPC India.
Before visiting India, Minister Martin Kuba and his whole delegation will also visit Bangladesh (10 – 11 March 2013).
Bilateral trade is currently in favour of the Czech Republic. It reached US $ 1.24 billion in 2012. The Czech Government ranks India among the 12 priority countries for promotion of mutual commercial, investment and other economic activities and the goal is to reach the level of US$ 2 billion by the year 2015. Substantial opportunities exist for Indian companies especially in the automotive industry, heavy engineering, pharmaceuticals, chemical industry, IT and know-how and technology transfer.