Norwegian Business Climate Survey launched in Mumbai

To assess the current and near future business climate for Norwegian companies with specific focus of the Maritime sector, the Norwegian Business Association India (NBAI) and Royal Norwegian Consulate General, Mumbai, in collaboration with the Commercial section of Royal Norwegian Embassy launched a Business Climate Survey here.

The survey was launched by Subhash Desai, State Industries Minister for Maharashtra.

Norwegian companies have been present in India for long, covering areas like maritime, oil and gas, fisheries and aquaculture, ICT, health and renewable, among many others. The recent policy initiatives by the Indian government have generated a lot of interest on Norwegian side and there is an urge to know more about the developments in India.

As India continues to be one of the countries attracting the largest foreign direct investments, Team Norway in India initiated the first Business Climate Survey for Norwegian business community operating in India.

"We are hopeful that the findings of this survey will potentially serve as an input for discussions and engagement with the Government of India, State governments and other stakeholders," said Subhash Desai, who was also the chief guest on the occasion.

During the launch, the Consul General of Norway Torbjorn Holthe said the objective is to assess the business confidence of Norwegian companies in India in terms of the opportunities and challenges that lie in relation to doing business with a general and maritime perspective.

"The economic ties between Norway and India are growing, and increasingly driven by trade in services. The Norwegian maritime companies are very optimistic (96% of them) about the sector growing in next 5 years. This optimism is largely because of the steps taken and projects initiated by the present Indian government. Some areas where we see a lot of potential for both countries to work together are Sustainable Shipping, Small Scale Distribution of LNG and Smart Societies," said Director of Innovation Norway, Helge Tryti.

Biggest Norwegian companies present in India are mainly Telenor, Statkraft, DNB, Aker Solutions, Jotun, MTR FOODS, Evry India, Kongsberg, DNV GL and many more.

The largest Indian companies in Norway are HLC Technologies, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and Teck Mahindra's IT branch.