On Wednesday, 31 January, an international webinar “India – Russia: Building Business Ties” was held, dedicated to the development of bilateral economic cooperation and the peculiarities of doing business in the Asian country.

Experts discussed promising industries, peculiarities of the Indian market, business etiquette and the role of creating a unified information field in successful business development.

Ved Prakash Singh, the First Secretary of the Indian Embassy in Moscow, the Head of Economic and Commercial Affairs, said that the early conclusion of a free trade agreement and bilateral investment protection treaty would give a new impetus to the trade and economic co-operation between the two countries.

“Russian exports to India are based on oil and petroleum products, mineral fertilisers. Our country regularly supplies tea, coffee, rice and spices to the Russian Federation. We need to work together to diversify the export basket of goods,” Singh explained.

According to him, there is also the need to intensify the supply of products in which India has great potential, namely car spare parts, electronic vehicles, heavy equipment, machine tools, electronic products, textiles, leather, he added.

“I am happy to note that in 2023, more than 20 Indian business delegations visited Russia and participated in various exhibitions. They represented pharmaceutical and chemical industries, agriculture and engineering. <…> I urge entrepreneurs from both countries to utilise all available opportunities,” the politician noted.

Alexandra Burman, the Head of International Projects at TV BRICS, spoke about the importance of mutual information exchange, multi-format co-operation and the role media plays in business success using India as an example.

“Indian and Russian representatives often say that one of the main problems hindering further development of business co-operation is the information vacuum. Russian business does not know what to offer the Indian market, and vice versa. Of course, our countries solve this problem by traditional offline methods organising business missions, holding industry B2B meetings, which is very important and effective, but in today’s digital world, of course, we need to develop the digital environment as well”

Alexandra Burman Head of International Projects at TV BRICS

Burman emphasised that it is important for business in both countries to have easy access to digital portals where they will be able to find out what is happening in a potentially interesting country for cooperation.

“TV BRICS content is systematically aired and published on the platforms of the network’s foreign media partners. This makes it possible to promote information about business events organised with the participation of Russian and Indian companies, events in business communities, bilateral and multilateral forums, among other things. By promoting specific cases of domestic enterprises in various fields through the BRICS and BRICS+ national media network, we can create a positive image of the country as a modern, progressive and technologically advanced state in the global information space. And this, in turn, provides a basis for business co-operation between the countries,” said the specialist.

Anastasia Grineva, the head of the economic department of the Trade Representation of the Russian Federation in the Republic of India, named the advantages of the Asian country for Russian businessmen.

“Since March India has become the first country in terms of population, which totalled over 1.4 billion people. And 60 per cent of them are people between the ages of 15 and 64. India is expected to become the youngest nation by 2025, with an average age of about 29 years. Human capital and English as the official language make India attractive for foreign entrepreneurs,” she explained.

Grineva added that the interest of businessmen is due to the country’s policy of attracting foreign investment.

It should be noted that the trade turnover between Russia and India exceeded $50 billion by the end of 2023, which allowed the country to take the fifth place among trade partners.

Photo:
IStock