NE BUSINESS BUREAU
CHENNAI, JUNE 6
Jamaican High Commissioner Jason Hall has on Tuesday inaugurates Latin American Caribbean Trade Office. The Latin American Caribbean Trade Office (LACTC) was set up in association with the Indian Economic Trade Organization (IETO). The newly Installed Chairman of the LACTC Rajesh Chandan gave a presentation of opportunities available for foreign investors in the education sector and other collaborative projects with the state.
Dr. Asif Iqbal, president of the Indian Economic Trade Organization who led a 9-member delegation to Jamaica, said, “ The country offers a lot of opportunities for the Indian businessmen in areas of Tourism, IT Development, solar energy, BPO, hospitality sector and also education collaborations.”
The Latin American Caribbean Trade office is responsible for Promoting Investment and Growth in collaboration with the Ministries of trade and commerce of various Latin American countries and their governments and trade promotion departments. The office in Chennai will be under the embassies of various Latin American Caribbean embassies in New Delhi. The event was attended by around 120 participants representing public, business, educational and healthcare sectors of the country.
The delegates discussed with the Chairman of the LACTC Rajesh Chandan about the issues and prospects of the bilateral economic cooperation, presented several interesting proposals aimed at jointly implementing them.
In his remarks, the Jamaican High Commissioner mentioned about the bilateral political relations and praised the positive environment of India’s Atma Nirbhar formed over the recent years, adding that the visits of the trade and business delegations of India have greatly contributed to relations and will pave way for accelerating trade and diplomatic ties.
The objective of Chennai centre is to help promote economic cooperation and strengthen the ties between the world’s largest agricultural country and Latin American nations. The Latin American Caribbean office in Chennai will help work together on various partnerships between MSMEs of both regions, which will include visits of delegations and exploring opportunities in the hospitality, mining, and tourism sectors, to mention a few.
“I’m very excited as I can see a lot of potential in Latin American countries to bring trade to India and in India to take a lot of trade to Latin America,” says Jason Hall, High Commissioner of Jamaica who feels Jamica’s strategic location could be a delight for Indian corporates to do business there as it’s a excellent tourist destination for Indians.
“Indian film industry can shoot in the Latin American region’s scenic beauty with reasonable manpower costs. When it comes to locations for Indian film makers from India, there are high number of exotic locations” said Yateesh Venkatesh of Purple Rock Entertainment.
When asked about the role that the Indian market could play in strengthening the relations, the Jamaican High Commissioner answered, “Agriculture is the backbone of India and so is it for Jamaica. Our needs are ever-growing. To get agriculture and the tech in agriculture is the future. So, the moment we both have something to give and take, the relationship and business will only grow.”
“Jamaica has got a complete relaxed work culture and it’s a very peaceful place. For somebody who’s interested in resorts and hotels, it offers great opportunities. There are a lot of hotel and hospitality investment opportunities. Education too is a very imp segment there as there’re a lot of Indian students in medicine. Various prospects to get engaged with Jamaica,” President of the Indian Economic Trade Organization, Dr. Asif Iqbal said.
“As the Chairman of the Latin American Caribbean Trade Office, my goal is to build bilateral relations reach new heights between India and Latin American region and our forthcoming India LAC conference in October 2023 will see tremendous interest from the Indian side especially in the backdrop of India taking over the presidency of the G20 summit, we will have a lot to promote India and its leadership program especially in Knowledge exchange, human capacity building and exports of Agriculture produce with focus on food processing sectors which have a great scope in Latin America” said Rajesh Chandan.
The delegation from other Latin American countries are expected to visit Tamilnadu in 2023 and sign MoUs with various pharma and IT companies.
