US trade delegation to visit India next year to boost trade ties

WASHINGTON: The sparsely populated North Dakota State of the US will send its first ever trade mission to India next year as part of an effort to attract investment and boost bilateral trade ties.

"A high-level North Dakotan Trade Mission to India is being planned in February-March 2016, which would probably be led either by Governor of North Dakota Jack Dalrymple or Lt Governor Drew Wrigley," Ausaf Sayeed, Consul General of India in Chicago, said after a visit to the State.

During his visit early this month, Sayeed met Drew Wringley, chairman of North Dakota Trade Office, and briefed him on the positive economic climate in India and the series of initiatives that are being undertaken by the new Indian government towards ease of doing business.

The proposed North Dakotan trade mission, which would also include Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring and several other leading business persons, is likely to visit cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Amritsar and possibly Bhopal and Hyderabad, Sayeed said.

Sayeed hoped that with the visit of the upcoming high-level delegation from North Dakota to India, new partnerships between the US and the Indian companies will emerge in different areas.

During his visit, the Consul General was apprised about agricultural advancements in its various aspects like production of renewable energy by using by-products of agriculture crops as biomass fuels, technology which produces a full line of non-GMO soybean varieties and others.

North Dakota with a population of less than eight lakhs has agriculture as its largest industry besides, petroleum, food processing and technology. It is experiencing an oil boom economy.