Baltic Sea Region seeks Indian business investments
07 Dec 2006
New Delhi: The Baltic Sea Region, an investment network and a consortium of six countries — Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden, has invited Indian companies, especially from life sciences, engineering, automotive, IT and telecom sectors, to set up businesses in the region. The Baltic Sea Region is the fastest growing region in the EU, and is a cost-effective and highly productive destination for the Indian sector majors and SMBs.
Representatives from each of the six Baltic Sea countries were in New Delhi this week to meet members of CII and offer consultation on setting up new businesses, and arranging visit programmes.
"With the changing economic climes, globalisation and liberalisation, India has witnessed a series of cross-border investments, said O Rolf Larssen, managing director, Copenhagen Capacity, BSR. He added that several Indian companies had expanded their global operations in various sectors across the world including the BSR. "Companies such as Indorama, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, Larsen and Toubro, and Rheoscience have successfully invested in the region and are bearing the fruits of what the region offers them," he said.
According to Raimonda Sadauskiene, Deputy Director General, Director of Investment, Department, Lithuanian Development Agency, BSR, "Countries under the BSR are in the top 12 for being most investor-friendly in the world. They offer competencies that complement those of the Indian partners. Easy access to European and Russian markets, cost-effectiveness, highest rates of industrial production growth in Europe and high production efficiency based on ground-breaking IT technology, equates to value for money for our partners." According to The World Economic Forum''s statistics, Finland, Sweden and Denmark have consistently been in the top five of the world''s most competitive economies while Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania are Europe''s fastest-growing economies. The Baltic Sea Region has vast experience in international trade that also offers world-class financial, educational and innovation facilities, while the record-breaking growth in the region''s prosperity projects that its consumer markets are rapidly expanding. Advantages of the Region:
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Advantageous geographic position: Access to the Region''s 100 million consumer and 250 million in neighbouring Russia and CIS, apart from 450 million consumers of the EU
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Exponential economic growth: GDP growth rate of 6.1 per cent in 2005 compared to UK''s growth rate of 1.8 per cent
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Logistics hub: Cost-effective land, sea and airfreight with EU''s harmonised customs procedures, minimised bureaucratic load, new direct passenger flights and well-established cargo routes
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Strong R&D: Highest number of researchers per capita in Europe and the highest rates of growth in innovation research
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Advantaged language skills: Widespread knowledge of English and Russian language, the combination of which provides a ready-made human-capital base that will not only allow to test and develop products, but also to market them across the widest possible area
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Profit making sectors: Record breaking production growths in automotive & engineering, ICT and Life science sectors
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SEZs: The region has nine Special Economic Zones / Free Ports, offering substantial business incentives including tax discounts, duty-free status and long-term leases at minimum rents
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Friendly judiciary: Investments are protected by a transparent legal and judicial system
"The Baltic Sea Region does give advantaged access to European markets, but our experience demonstrates that the Region''s market itself is an added incentive to Indian investment," said R Gurumoorthy, GM corporate affairs, Indo Rama Synthetics (India) Ltd.
"Advantageous geographic position with fast access to EU and CIS markets, excellent infrastructure, and favourable economic environment were the foundation of the our €100 million investment in the region."
In the last two-decades, various competitive brands such as Accenture Technology Solutions, Microlink, TDC, Telia Sonera, and TietoEnator have witnessed strong growth and have established head offices in the region. Also, Indian technology majors such as Tata Consultancy Service, Wipro, Shyam, and Sasken Communication Technologies have successfully invested in the region.
The Region has strong Lifesciences competencies united into a super cluster through the ScanBalt BioRegion initiative — it has over 1,000 biotech and life science companies with brands like AstraZeneca, Leo Pharma, Lundbeck and Novo Nordisk. BSR has over 60 universities working in life science research, with growing opportunities in clinical trials and medical methodology. Liberalisation of policies has brought tremendous benefits to the Region, which has driven down costs and built strong advantages for engineering and automotive manufacturers like as ABB, Atlas Copco, Autoliv, Kone, Saab, Sandvik, SKF, Snaige, Volvo and Wartsila.
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