Baltic region wants Indian investments
Baltic Sea Region (BSR), a consortium of six countries, is seeking major investments from Indian companies in several sectors including life sciences, engineering and IT & telecom.
By Gaurie Mishra, TNN |
HELSINKI: Baltic Sea Region (BSR), a consortium of six countries — Denmark , Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden — is seeking major investments from Indian companies in several sectors including life sciences, engineering and IT & telecom. Some Indian companies including Indorama, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, Larsen & Toubro and Bharat Forge have already started investing in the region. Many such large Indian companies are being wooed by the region which is promoting itself as a cost-effective and productive destination with high research capabilities.
“With the changing economic climate, India has witnessed a series of cross-border investments and several Indian companies have expanded their operations globally including in the BSR. Countries under BSR are investor-friendly and offer competencies that complement those of the Indian partners. Easy access to European markets, cost-effectiveness, highest rates of industrial production growth in Europe and high production efficiency based on ground-breaking IT technology, equates to value for money for our partners.” said BSR investment group chairperson Annika Rembe.
With the entire region having a population of only 27 million people, government-owned investment agencies, are trying to attract Indian companies to invest in research intensive areas like IT, telecom and pharmaceuticals. The region boasts of the highest number of researchers per capita in Europe and highest rates of growth in innovation research.
The region is also home to companies like, mobile giants Nokia and Ericsson, elevator company Kone, voice over internet protocol solution provider Skype which was later acquired by eBay, retail giant Ikea and truck company Scania, all of which have significant focus on R&D. Even though, most big Swedish and Finnish companies have their presence in India, there are only a few large Indian companies which have presence in these countries. The region is promoting itself not only as a research hub but also as a low cost destination with salaries in BSR being significantly lower than those in western Europe and USA.
Investment agencies like Invest in Sweden, Invest in Finland and Enterprise Estonia are promoting the region as the gateway to the rest of the Europe, which would provide access to the 450 million consumers of EU, besides the 100 million consumers of BSR. The GDP of the entire region for the year 2005 stood at $867.4 billion, of which Sweden alone contributed $358.8 billion.
Smaller countries in the consortium including Latvia , Lithuania and Estonia together accounted for only $55.4 billion of the total GDP.
With a proven ability to attract and retain FDI, BSR is looking to further strengthen its trade relationship with India. The region’s governments have reduced bureaucratic obstacles and BSR as a collective force, operates strong pro-business policies, with close cooperation between the public and private sectors.
“With the changing economic climate, India has witnessed a series of cross-border investments and several Indian companies have expanded their operations globally including in the BSR. Countries under BSR are investor-friendly and offer competencies that complement those of the Indian partners. Easy access to European markets, cost-effectiveness, highest rates of industrial production growth in Europe and high production efficiency based on ground-breaking IT technology, equates to value for money for our partners.” said BSR investment group chairperson Annika Rembe.
With the entire region having a population of only 27 million people, government-owned investment agencies, are trying to attract Indian companies to invest in research intensive areas like IT, telecom and pharmaceuticals. The region boasts of the highest number of researchers per capita in Europe and highest rates of growth in innovation research.
The region is also home to companies like, mobile giants Nokia and Ericsson, elevator company Kone, voice over internet protocol solution provider Skype which was later acquired by eBay, retail giant Ikea and truck company Scania, all of which have significant focus on R&D. Even though, most big Swedish and Finnish companies have their presence in India, there are only a few large Indian companies which have presence in these countries. The region is promoting itself not only as a research hub but also as a low cost destination with salaries in BSR being significantly lower than those in western Europe and USA.
Investment agencies like Invest in Sweden, Invest in Finland and Enterprise Estonia are promoting the region as the gateway to the rest of the Europe, which would provide access to the 450 million consumers of EU, besides the 100 million consumers of BSR. The GDP of the entire region for the year 2005 stood at $867.4 billion, of which Sweden alone contributed $358.8 billion.
Smaller countries in the consortium including Latvia , Lithuania and Estonia together accounted for only $55.4 billion of the total GDP.
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With a proven ability to attract and retain FDI, BSR is looking to further strengthen its trade relationship with India. The region’s governments have reduced bureaucratic obstacles and BSR as a collective force, operates strong pro-business policies, with close cooperation between the public and private sectors.
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