EUROCHAMBERS Joins FISME to Help Indian SMEs Go Green, EUROCHAMBERS Will Help Indian SMEs, EUROCHAMBERS Joined FISME

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Saurabh Gupta | 15 Jun, 2010
In an important development that could be crucial for Indian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which have been in quest of environment friendly technologies, the European Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (EUROCHAMBERS) on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME) in this regard.

"The MoU is to formalize the existing cooperation with FISME and pave way for identification of right business partners for EU companies in SME space in India," said the EUROCHAMBRES President, Alessandro Barberis at the signing ceremony of the MoU.

A European Business and Technology Center (EBTC) has already been established to bring the EU technology to Indian counterparts. Unlike large companies SMEs need special support for such initiatives, Barberis mentioned.

EBTC is a programme co-funded by the European Union and implemented by EUROCHAMBRES, which is an association of more than 1200 European industry bodies and voices the interests of over 19 million member enterprises in 45 European countries through a network of 2000 regional and local Chambers represented by 45 national and one transnational organisations.

More than 90 percent of the member enterprises of EUROCHAMBRES are Small or Medium Enterprises. Chamber members employ over 120 million employees.

After signing of the MoU, President FISME, Mohan Suresh, while explaining the mechanism of cooperation, said that based on the discussions with Indian organizations, the EBTC identifies potential areas of cooperation with European companies associated with EUROCHAMBERS. It then organizes their exposure trips to India and arranges one to one meetings of the identified European companies with Indian counterparts through FISME.

According to Suresh, formalizing cooperation with EUROCHAMBERS would positively impact the efforts of SMEs' access to green technologies. Indian SMEs are continuously under pressure of supply chains to improve and upgrade technologies which are environment-friendly and sustainable.

EBTC and FISME have already executed successful visits of two delegations this year, one in energy sector and another in the area of biotechnology. A delegation for transport sector is expected in September later this year.

Meanwhile, in his address Secretary General, FISME, Anil Bhardwaj said, "Although the relationship between European Communities and India is evolving since 1960s, especially since 90s, almost all major global crisis whether political or economic have found them on the same side. After each crisis they got closer and their cooperation became deeper."

"Despite the global economic crisis, our bilateral trade in goods is likely to cross the Euro 75 bn mark next year. The trade in services too might touch Euro 20 bn by next year. The trend of is not one-sided and FDI from EU to India as well as from India to select EU countries keeping pace."

"Though the present economic crisis is not over yet, we have an ambitious agenda ahead and India-EU FTA is already in advance stage of finalisation. The FTA is to take the economic relationship to a new higher orbit," he added.

When asked how this MoU will help Indian SMEs, Bhardwaj told SME Times, "This MoU will help a big chunk of Indian SMEs to develop clean technology in the area of Biotechnology, Energy, Environment and Transport."

While speaking on the same, the EUROCHAMBRES President said, "It is our main objective to address the main market access barriers, as well as familiarize the EU business and science community with the local business environment."

"We have signed this MoU for technology transfer mechanism," he added.