UCCI team to visit China to promote trade relations

In an effort to rope in Chinese businessmen to invest in the state, an 18 member delegation of the Utkal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCI) would be undertaking a 10 day visit to China beginning October 13. The visit is aimed at fostering closer ties between the business communities of the two countries.

“The delegation would interact with business houses of China for partnerships which would bring in investments and technologies mostly in the field of engineering and allied sectors, natural gas and food processing sector,” said Ramesh Mohapatra, president, UCCI.

UCCI, the apex body of industry representatives in the state, is scheduled to meet Honkong chamber of commerce and Guangzhou chamber of commerce during their ten day sojourn to the Asia’s largest economy.

Most significant part of our travel plan is to attend the Canton Fair, one of the world’s largest trade fair, for which the profile of the members has already been forwarded to the organizers, he added.

The 112th session of Canton Fair also known as China Import and Export Fair is scheduled to start from October 15 and continue till November 4. It will be held in three phases of five days each. The fair, which is held biannually in Guangzhou, is a platform mainly for import and export activities. The first session of the trade fair in April this year had recorded a business turnover of $36,030 million.

According to a study, Odisha has pulled 17 foreign direct investments (FDI) proposals in 2011-12 totaling to Rs 49,527crore, about 27.82 per cent of the overall FDI proposals of Rs 1.78 lakh crore received by all states. It may be noted, the total bilateral trade between India and China for the financial year 2011-12, stood at $75,457.42 million as compared to $59,000.36 million in 2010-11. During the last fiscal, the exports stood at Rs 17,902.98 million while the imports stood at Rs 57,554.44 million.