CII's buyer seller meet gets good response

A buyer-seller meet, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), got an overwhelming response from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and large companies.

The meet ended with a suggestion to change the buyer-seller meet into an opportunity for forging partnerships.

The buyer-seller meet, attended by around 200 SMEs, was addressed by large firms like ABB Ltd, Tata Motors, Bharat Forge, Kirloskar Oil engines Ltd, Cummins International, MICO, Crompton Greaves, Epcos India Pvt Ltd and Reliable Autotech Pvt Ltd among others. Around 25 SMEs participated and showcased their products.

Sanjay Chahande, divisional commissioner, appealed to industrialists to adopt a public-private partnership (PPP) model in water and power sectors.

Admitting the problem of land availability for industrial expansion in Nashik, he said, "The government could acquire adequate land for SEZ at Sinnar (30 kms from Nashik) and around 300-400 acres of land have been reserved for the IT sector alone. The connectivity to Sinnar will be very good with four-laning of the Mumbai-Nashik and Pune-Nashik highways. Hence, there is a lot of potential for industrial growth in the Nashik-Sinnar belt."

"Although we are seeing a phenomenal growth in recent years, we should not lose sight of the fact that this is also a part of the global process of growth. A 3 per cent growth rate in USA is far more in absolute terms than India's 10 per cent growth. Being cost-effective and competitive with the use of high-end technologies is going to be of prime importance if we have to survive with the global competition in coming years. We must think of and plan for the times when the growth rate flattens out, which is bound to happen sooner or later," said Banmali Agrawala, deputy chairman, CII (WR) and managing director, Wartsila India Ltd.

Sudhir Trehan, past chairman, CII (WR) and managing director, Crompton Greaves Ltd, said, "The world of doing business and the world of buying and selling is changing fast and India must take note of these changes and learn from the experiences of others. We should no more call ourselves a buyer or a seller but we should treat each other as partners. This concept is now taking root everywhere and the large buyers who treat their vendors as 'suppliers' and not partners are going down fast."