Press center
10.04.2023
India Is Interested in Cooperation with SEZs of the Caspian Cluster
On April 3-7, Delhi (India) hosted a major trade mission of representatives of business circles, governmental institutions and businesses from Russia. The Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov, Russia’s Trade Commissioner to India Alexander Rybas, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation Sergey Katyrin and representatives of 90 companies from 30 Russian regions were among the participants. Director General of SEZ Lotus JSC Sergey Milushkin represented the Caspian Cluster of the Astrakhan Region.
Traditionally, India has been one of Russia’s key strategic and trade partners. The mutual commodity turnover in 2022 between the two countries reached 35.3 billion dollars. This is 2.5 times more than in 2021.
– India is a huge and fast developing country requiring a lot of resources, materials and products. Our task is to find common ground with partners. For instance, we propose to locate Indian production facilities within our industrial SEZ Lotus. Our Indian partners are also showing great interest in the development of cargo transportation via the INSTC and in the Port SEZ projects. Here we have held a number of very important negotiations– comments Sergey Milushkin, Director General of the Caspian Cluster Management Company.
One of the events of the visit was the Russian-Indian Business Forum of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The participants discussed the opportunities for enhancing cooperation and strengthening Russia-India economic relations. Speaking on the current logistical concerns, the participants emphasized that the lack of regular shipping lines between Russia and Iran as well as between Iran and India impede the full-scale launch of the INSTC.
The Business Mission program, apart from the Forum and business meetings, included visits to the Indian industrial facilities – the participants attended Manesar and Haryana IT-park and also visited the Greater Noida industrial development area.
The Port SEZ in the Astrakhan Region was created in 2020. The construction process is now in its active phase: within the first stage of development the territory of 8th and 9th berths of the Olya seaport covering the area of 40 hectares have been prepared. The crane equipment as well as the grain, oil and container terminals will be placed here. A contractor of PLC Caspiy LLC, the Port SEZ anchor tenant, is already carrying out the construction. Grain shipments from the berths under the temporary scheme are scheduled to start this summer.
Image source: https://tpprf.ru/
