Agra industry meet to obviate need for foreign roadshows

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and exporters operating their industrial units in Agra and Firozabad may not have to worry about arranging for funds to participate in buyer-seller meets usually held abroad.

The commerce ministry is planning to hold the country's first large-scale "Reverse Buyer-Seller Meet" in Agra shortly, to help the small-scale industries of Agra and the nearby town of Firozabad in tapping into international clientele without having to incur the unnecessary expenditure of participating in foreign buyer-seller meets.

According to Anil Verma, president, National Chamber of Industries and Commerce (NCIC), UP, this indication had been given by the Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh, during his Agra visit recently while talking to a delegation of industrialists and the NCIC has now been asked to formally prepare a blueprint for holding such a meet in Agra where the expenses of bringing buyers to Agra from abroad could be jointly borne by the commerce and tourism ministries.

Verma said while Agra was famous around the world for footwear, carpets and handicrafts, Firozabad had earned the reputation of the producing cheaper and comparable quality glassware like Belgium.

But most of the industrialists engaged in the business in both these cities were running small-scale operations where the expenses of participating in a foreign buyer-seller meet could be hardly tolerated in the tight budget that these units operated in, he explained.

Besides, he said, the government also provided subsidy to the industrialists to participate in the meet, which meant an additional expenditure of foreign currency and as a result, a large number of industrialists avoided participating in such buyer-seller meets even if that meant losing business to other competitors.

Keeping the economic aspect of this problem in mind, he said, the commerce ministry has now brought the concept of organising a "Reverse Buyer-Seller Meet" in which, the foreign importers could be given special package tours to the Taj Mahal and other historical monuments of Agra, combined with a visit to the "Trade Fair".

This would help the industrial units to have a first-hand experience of the manufacturing process of the products and they could directly meet the manufacturers and order the products instead of going through the various "export houses".

Verma claimed that this reverse buyer-seller meet could significantly increase the inflow of foreign export orders for the local industrialists without having them visit the trade fairs held in different countries, which shall also reduce the subsidy burden on the government.