In the first-ever visit by any high-level dignitary from Argentina in 15 years, President Cristina Fernandez will visit India on October 14.
Accompanied by a group of more than 50 top businessmen from Argentina, she will seek more Indian investments and joint ventures between companies of the two countries.
?During her two-day visit, various agreements for bilateral cooperation are expected to be signed,? R Viswanathan, India?s ambassador to Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, told FE.
IT has clearly been one of the key areas for Indian companies led by TCS and Wipro, Infosys, HCL, Cognizant, Mahindra Satyam and nine other companies are not far behind. Indian IT companies, according to Viswanathan, employ some 10,000 Latin Americans.
The new TCS centre, which was inaugurated earlier this month, will initially employ about 250 professionals. It is located in the Parquet de los Patricios neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. ?We are proud to be the first company to open doors in the new technology district of Buenos Aires,? TCS CEO and managing director S Ramadorai had said during the opening ceremony.
The Buenos Aires centre is also the third global service centre for BPO in Latin America in addition to the company?s facilities in Chile and Uruguay.
?The global crisis and the consequent local resource and credit crunch have made Latin American importers to head towards less expensive sources such as India,? said Viswanathan.
?The crisis has opened a new window of opportunity for Indian companies to acquire assets and farmland in the region since the prices are lower this time,? Viswanathan added.
According to the Indian envoy, ?the two-way trade could go up to $ 30 billion by 2012, given the positive change in the market of Latin America and the favourable mindset of Latin Americans towards India.? Indian imports alone could reach $15 billion by 2012, he said.
And to achieve that goal, India is setting up trade centres in Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Santiago and Port-of-Spain.
According to Ficci officials, ?There is a good potential of cooperation between India and Argentina in the manufacturing sectors. Industrial production of Argentina includes automobiles, steel, aluminum, paper, sugar, PVC and polyethylene in which India also has a strong manufacturing base and technological capabilities.?
The trade between the two countries has registered a quantum increase – from about $ 611.29 million in 2003-04 to $ 1.196 billion in 2007-08.
The Indian exports to Argentina during this period grew from $ 87.33 million to $ 289.68 million. Imports from Argentina grew from $ 523.96 in 2003-04 to $ 905.87 million in 2007-08.
Exports to Argentina constitue only 0.18 % of India?s total exports; while imports from Argentina constitute 0.36 % of India?s total imports. Hence, India has a negative balance of trade with Argentina. Since India has Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) with Mercosur, of which Argentina is a member, this is expected to facilitate greater market access of Indian products in Argentina. This agreement became operational mid-2009.