The Hindu Business Line : ITPO unveils Rs 1,300-cr modernisation plan

AS trade fairs and technology exhibitions are accelerating exports by offering an effective interface between buyers and sellers, the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) has drawn up an ambitious Rs 1,300-crore modernisation programme.

Disclosing this to Business Line here in an interview, the Chairman and Managing Director, ITPO, Mr N. N. Khanna, said, "We have a plan for modernisation of Pragati Maidan," (the main venue of the India International Trade Fair/IITF, which is running its twenty-fifth annual event with larger participation from domestic and foreign companies.) He said the modernisation programme encompasses "a very substantial upgradation of all the facilities that are available here. While the existing facilities will be altered and modified, new ones would also be created."

He said the IITF, which is currently at a mid-point, has attracted a large number of overseas participation and it is not just a showcase of manufacturing or services activities that make them come here repeatedly. "People keep coming here to see, purchase, place orders and trade with a combination of all these and we believe this substantially contributes to India's trade efforts."

Mr Khanna said that in terms of the present available physical area, the current fair is close on to "saturation. This year, the space booked is 18 to 20 per cent more than last year. The number of people visiting the fair this year is so large that we have to discourage people from coming on week-ends and we price the ticket in such a way that people come during working days and not on week-ends. This is only a question of making the fair more user-friendly and improving the quality of products and participation."

With 7,500 exhibitors participating from India and 33 foreign countries, the trade delegations appear to be "extremely impressed at the magnitude of exposition, the scale, the variety of products and the multitude of people," Mr Khanna said.

Asked to quantify the results of the fair as it has run its first half, the ITPO chief said that reports "we get from the participants are extremely encouraging. Precise figures we don't have now. I suspect that even after the exhibition concludes, we will at best have guess estimates because trade normally does not like to guess figures. Often it is in the nature of inquiry. Orders don't fructify within 48 hours."

He said that a 12-member delegation from Saudi Arabia showed interest in auto parts, hand tools and machinery and visited the Techmart and defence pavilions. A 25-member high-level delegation from Panama led by its First Vice-President and Foreign Minister Mr Samuel Lewis Navarro, made a detailed presentation on investment opportunities in Panama, detailing the infrastructure facilities available and incentives offered by the country. He said a five-member delegation from the US visited the technology exports section and showed interest in sourcing small engineering items and handicrafts from India.

Stating that these were only illustrative cases of foreign firms' interest in what they could offer and what they could, in turn, take from India, Mr Khanna said that as the Indian economy has been growing at a rate of 7 per cent in recent years, export is really a part of the economic growth and trade fairs, like the one in IIFT, would help accelerate foreign trade over the long-haul.

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