Korean companies for partnerships with Indian peers

South Korean firms are scouting for partnerships with Indian MSMEs in the field of technical collaborations. An India - Korea Business Matchmaking Symposium was organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at its Headquarters in Chandigarh on Tuesday to help Korean entrepreneurs to explore the possibilities of business alliances like direct export, joint venture, appointing dealers & distributors, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) etc with Indian small outfits.

Korea is particularly keen to forge business ties, joint venture (JVs), partnerships, mergers and develop other inter trade mechanisms like appointing dealerships and distributor channels with the industrialists from northern India, especially in Chandigarh and Punjab region, considering the immense potential in this region for Korean technologies and products and a large number of MSMEs here, emphasised Dongseok Choi , Director General, KOTRA (South Korea trade promotion agency, the umbrella agency of the Korea's Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy) while addressing the entrepreneurs.

"In the recent years northern states of India have emerged as a prime focus area for us as the number of MSMEs here has grown tremendously. With such symposium, we look forward to establish more joint ventures and mutually beneficial alliances with the MSMEs and SMEs of this region", he further shared.

"India-Korea comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) has the potential to take bilateral trade relations between the two countries to new heights and Korea would help India in achieving $30 billion trade target by 2014 and $40 billion by 2015. Korea would like to partner India in its quest for economic development", he added.

At the same time he called for lowering of entry barriers for Korean companies willing to invest in India to facilitate investment by Korean companies.

Manmohan Singh, Chairman, CII Chandigarh council, said that more than 100 B2B meetings were held and proposals and partnerships worth crores were discussed between CII members from the region and Korean companies including HM Digital, EM Tech, S-Form, Daehan Lockers etc. The local entrepreneurs benefitted immensely from the latest Korean technologies, products and best practices and were very keen to join hands with the Korean counterparts to expand their businesses.