Portal to promote Indo-Swedish trade launched

An initiative to promote trade between India and Sweden was kicked off from the Kerala capital with the launch of an exclusive business portal, business-matching .com.

The portal aims at establishing a common platform for business communities of the two countries, said Andrew S Suneson and Sarah Meiling, founder-partners of the portal. An online B2B marketplace, business-matching.com would enhance the possibility of introducing e-commerce, they added.

According to Suneson, business-matching.com would help increase the number of companies from India and Sweden doing business with each other substantially. Further, the portal would help create an open environment to enable traders of both the countries to promote their products and services globally, he added.

Sarah Meiling said Indian traders could register online by paying Rs 1140 for one year. Those who register this month would get an added three-month membership free.

After a year, existing members who wish to renew their membership would be provided incentives. This apart, one of the traders among the first 100 who register on business-matching.com would win an IPod through draw of lots, Meiling told Business Standard post launch of the portal. Suneson and Meiling also plan to launch business-matching.com in Sweden by August this year.

With India placed somewhere around the 25th position among Sweden's top 50 export markets and third in Asia, the launch of business-matching.com would provide an added impetus to the trade between the two nations, Suneson said.

He said Indian and Swedish traders would be able to cooperate with each other in business promotion and marketing, in the areas of IT and software, biotechnology, health care, environment technology, heavy engineering, e-commerce and internet banking, waste management, energy, pulp and paper, construction and building materials, automotive parts, etc., through the portal.

"We want to have at least 1000 Indian companies that have signed in as members by the end of June. There are already about 3000 Swedish companies registered in our database. All of these companies have either import or export as their line of trade,"Meiling added.

The city-based St Joseph's Press became the launch customer of business-matching.com. The press, which currently has a Swedish link through the printing of the Swedish version of Persian women's magazine Avaye Zan, will now look for more international contracts through the portal, press manager Jacob Korakkal said.