The 2nd Convention of the International Business Linkage Forum (IBLF) was held in Mumbai. The event witnesses over 55 participants from 13 countries discuss opportunities of Trade Investment and Inter countries proposals from across the globe. The event was held from 27th – 30th January 2004.
It included businessmen from all over the world, with keen interest to develop a business in fields like Aviation, Telecom, Satellite System, Oil, Precious Stones, Ports, Education and other sectors.
On 30th January an “International Business Conflux” was organized. The seminar had two sessions namely “Global Scenario” and “Telecom & IT” Welcoming the delegates Mr. Rajiv Podar Chairman IBLF & Managing Director, Podar Enterprise, said that the era of cooperation and collaboration had replaced the era of competition. IBLF hence encouraged using expertise, knowledge and skills of its members rather then duplicating it, for mutual benefit. He felt IBLF was a medium to reach out to newer markets and expanding business effectively, efficiently, economically and enterprisingly. He said with the advent of technology and communication the World was coming closer and becoming one big market. He emphasized the reliability of IBLF as it enjoyed the patronage Government / Ministries and was spread over in 16 countries.
The session on Global Scenario was chaired by Mr. Dileep Choksi, Managing Partner, Deloittes, and the Chief Guests were the HE Mr. Gatious Akplogan, Minister of Trade and Industry of Benin, HE Mr. Luc Gnacadja, Minister of Urban Development of Benin and Mr. Jayant Patil the Honorable Finance Minister of Maharashtra. The key speakers were the honorable Consul General of China HE. Yuan Nanfheng, the Honorable Consul General of South Korea, HE Mr. Dong IL Chung and the First Secretary of the Embassy of Belarus Ms. Nataliya Yasnovskaya.
Mr. Dileep Choksi began the session by giving the existing Global Scenario and opportunities in India. He emphasized that there were several opportunities for the delegates in India from ports, airlines, infrastructure etc.
HE. Gatious Akpologan, Minister of Trade and Industry, (Benin) with his team of ministerial delegation, who where here especially for the forum said they were very keen in developing a business partnership between the countries. He felt that Benin engaged a strategic location and was the gateway for other West African markets. He stressed that Benin was a potential market for partnership in Agro industries, composite textiles processing industries, minerals, spinning and weaving industries and software programming development. He assured his full support to all IBLF members if they proposed to invest in Benin.
Mr. Jayant Patil, Honorable Finance Minister of Maharashtra congratulated the delegates for forming IBLF and welcomed them to the state and hoped they would benefit from the available opportunities. He offered support of his good offices for all IBLF Members who were seeking to work in Maharashtra.
HE. Mr. Yuan Nanfheng the Chinese Consul General and HE. Mr. Dong-IL Chung the Korean Consul General outlined opportunities available in their countries and emphasized that both the economies offered vast potentials. They urged the members of IBLF to look at opportunities in China & South Korea.
Ms. Nataliya Yasnovskaya gave a presentation on opportunities in Belarus and request IBLF Chairman Mr. Podar to hold a special meet of IBLF in Delhi to discuss concrete proposals in Belarus.
In the Second Session on Telecom and IT Mr. Rakesh Wahi welcomed the delegates and expressed that both the sectors were developing very rapidly and offered huge potential. Mr. Shailesh Haribhakti, President of Indian Merchant Chambers chaired the session Mr. Oleshnetsky, Vice President – Shiron ( Israel) spoke on the Wireless Solutions Podar-KPI – Shiron offered. He said it was like creating a virtual optical fiber network in the sky. The solutions were cost effective and very useful in emergency cases such as major fire, earthquake etc. when all communications are destroyed. As per Mr. K. H. Khan, (member), Department of Telecommunications, Govt. of India, there has been a remarkable change in the Indian Telecommunication scenario, it had not only become a means to exchange different kind of information like voice, data, e-mail, message and pictures but was also becoming an essential medium for education, health-care and governance. He said telecom sector in India was one of the fastest growing in the world with an average growth of about 22% in basic telephone services and over 100% in cellular mobile and Internet services. Mr. Dedov from Russia gave a detailed presentation and proposal on merging technology and UMWS.
