Indian SMEs to benefit from Germany’s technology collaboration: Sharma

Indian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector will benefit from technology collaboration with Germany. While speaking at German and Indian CEOs meeting at Berlin, Union Minister of Commerce Industry and Textile Anand Sharma said, ‘small and medium enterprises, which form the backbone of Indian industry, employing 26 million people, contributing to 45% of our manufacturing output and 40% of total exports would benefit immensely through a technology collaboration with Germany.’

After a meeting with German Federal Minister of Economics & Technology Philipp Roessler, Sharma showed preference for improved partnership between India and Germany, mainly in the field of generics. There are over 1600 Indo-German collaborations and more than 600 Indo-German joint ventures in operation.

Sharma also said, BMW has emerged as one of the largest selling luxury cars in India, and Indian corporate leaders have been equally enthusiastic about investing in Germany, given the welcoming investment climate and the natural synergy which exists between the two countries.

Indian corporate entities have invested over $6 billion in Germany. Indian industry majors such as Tata Motors, Bharat Forge, Suzlon and the Mahindra Group, Wipro, Infosys have all established their base in Germany. There are 215 Indian companies active in Germany employing over 24,000 people. Further, bilateral trade between India and Germany has more than doubled over the last five years, to reach about $23.64 billion in 2011, and is well set to cross the 20 billion euro mark in 2012 as per commerce minister.