Enter the Dragon, in your neighbourhood

600 Chinese firms book space in Delhi mall.

A Rs 150-crore mall coming up in west Delhi appears poised to become a sphere of Chinese influence, with about 600 companies from mainland China setting up liaison and exhibition offices in it.

The centre is meant to serve as a gateway for Chinese companies, so that middlemen operating out of Hong Kong and Singapore can be done away with.

Real estate developer Anant Raj Industries and China's Schezwan province have entered into an agreement to set up the centre. The two-floor building, which will offer 300,000 sq ft of space, is slated to be ready in October this year.

The project is being funded by Anant Raj, partially through a loan from the State Bank of India. Most of the Chinese companies taking up space in the complex are small and medium manufacturers, operating in sectors like textile, apparel, electronics and toy.

While these are sectors in which China has conquered the world markets with its cost efficiency, sources say companies dealing in heavy and light machinery are also keen to join the west Delhi cluster.

As per the plans, the offices in Delhi will be used by these companies to market their products in India.

"The Chinese companies are of the view that the middlemen from Hong Kong and Singapore are benefiting from the present trade that takes place between the two countries. If they have a direct presence in India, these companies will be able to remove the intermediaries and benefit from it," said Anant Raj Industries Director Amit Sarin.

According to the sources, the representative offices of the Chinese companies will not be used as trading centres, but as units to popularise goods made by them.

At present, about 60 per cent of the trade between India and China takes place through an indirect route. In addition, most of it is between small traders in the two countries.

The sources said in case a direct link was established between Chinese manufacturers and India, the cost of the products could come down by another 10 to 15 per cent.