INZBC forges ahead

INZBC forges ahead …..

25 September 2015

The India New Zealand Business Council [INZBC], has announced a very impressive line-up of events and is fully committed to deliver outstanding value to its members and stakeholders. Promoting its aim of fostering international trade and business between India & New Zealand, INZBC is working collaboratively with NZTE, MFAT, Education NZ, Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED), CII and the Indian High Commission, and will be organising three events in October alone this year.

INZBC believes that sport can open many doors to business, thus there is a meet & greet networking event with the India Men’s Hockey team & Black Sticks Men, on 8th October in Christchurch.

With the backdrop of the recent global stock market crash, on 9th October, there will be a talk on financial markets in NZ & India. Those speaking will include Minister of Trade, Hon. Tim Groser and leading economists, Satish Ranchhod (Senior Economist, NZ Economics, Westpac) and Paul Smith (Partner, EY – Lead on GST in NZ).

On 27th October, INZBC will be co-hosting an inward delegation of top IT companies from the Kerala in India. INZBC has signed an MOU with this group called GTECH (Group of Technology Companies).

All this is in continuation of INZBC’s efforts at providing some top class events for the industry over the past decades. With more than 20 events, big and small organised in the past 2-3 years alone, INZBC has covered most of the important industry sectors and has been able to get the Kiwi companies sit up and take notice of the India story.

This is ratified by the fact that INZBC is the only organisation in the India-NZ trade space where the Prime Minister has spoken twice in the past two years. INZBC also regularly organises sessions for its members to interact with Ministers and dignitaries including Hon. Tim Groser, Hon. Steven Joyce, Hon. Todd McClay, Hon. Amy Adams, Hon. Nathan Guy, Hon. Simon Bridges, The Mayor of Auckland, Len Brown, Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy and the Indian High Commissioner. Such high impact sessions cement INZBC’s position as the leading body promoting trade between the two countries.

According to Steve Armitage, ATEED acting General Manager Business Attraction and Investment: “ATEED certainly values the positive working relationship we have had with INZBC in recent years – creating both opportunities for Indian investors and companies to learn about and invest in Auckland, and for Auckland companies to understand how best to expand into the Indian market. Our partnering with the INZBC for the 2014 and 2015 summits created valuable connections for Auckland companies, both in terms of inbound investment and opportunities in India. The summit and business events held around this year’s ICC Cricket World Cup were a great success and we look forward to future opportunities to work closely with the INZBC”.

New Plans for 2015-16

The INZBC has also announced a series on new initiatives for 2015/ 2016.

This will involve a series of conferences and industry focused work-shops. Many of these events will be enhanced by visiting Indian companies and organisations.

INZBC Chair, Robert Barkers says, “We are also moving forward with an exciting series of MOUs with our Indian counterparts. This will further add value to your INZBC membership.”

Highlighting that India is experiencing exciting opportunities for NZ business, Robert said that, “being involved with the INZBC is your company’s first step in building your business networks into India. The INZBC has an experienced, committed and a passionate EC and we are more than happy to help your business.”

“INZBC is working with other government agencies and trade partners, to get knowledgeable and industry focus events for the business fraternity”, said Mr. Barker.

Deeper engagement with the Government

Mr. Wenceslaus Anthony who has been the past chair of INZBC and currently heads the Government Relations team of INZBC said that INZBC has always been working very closely with the governments on both sides of the spectrum and increasingly so.

“There has been changes in the Government of India side with reference to our engagement. We now have Mr. Sandeep Sood Chargé d’Affaires a.i., High Commission of India, Wellington and INZBC has a very good rapport with him. INZBC has established contact with the new Chief Negotiator for FTA - Mr. Arvind Mehta I.A.S - Additional Secretary Commerce at New Delhi and will continue to maintain healthy dialogue aimed at a speedy conclusion of FTA.”

Mr Anthony further adds that, “We maintain contacts with NZTE, MFAT, NZ High Commissioner in India - Mr. Grahame Morton, NZ Consul General in Mumbai – Mr. Kevin McKenna and the Trade Commissioner in New Delhi – Jane Cunliffe. Our strength has been the strong relationship with both the Governments – India and New Zealand. INZBC will continue to extend all its support to both the governments for strengthening the trade and business between both the two countries.”

Regional Director NZTE: India Middle East and Africa, Clayton Kimpton who has been part of some events of INZBC and also worked on some delegations together has seen the work done by Council over the years. He says, “NZTE has a strong working relationship with the INZBC, with which we have been collaborating to strengthen the India and New Zealand relationship.

INZBC and NZTE work together to ensure the success of inwards business delegations and the annual INZBC summit to promote NZ-India business links. The INZBC provides NZ companies with invaluable support and networking opportunities as they work to break into the Indian market,” says Clayton Kimpton.

Working with Agencies & Industry Partners

INZBC strongly believes in collaboration and working with industry and trade partners. This is reflected in the number of MOUs it has signed with trade partners, including CII (Confederation of Indian Industries); GTECH (Group of Technology Companies, Kerala); Export New Zealand and J Curve (India).

INZBC is also working closely with NZTE to have rolling events in the coming year for promoting international trade with India.

Maria Grey, Market Manager, India Middle East and Africa, NZTE adds that, “NZTE and the INZBC enjoy working together to increase understanding of the India business landscape. Over the past couple of years, NZTE has supported the INZBC to deliver a range of events, including its successful Indian Business Summit, which present the opportunities and challenges of this country and help businesses be better prepared for entry into the market. Coming up, INZBC is working on a couple of events, in association with NZTE with an export focus.”

According to Treasurer Bhav Dhillon “The secret of INZBC’s success has been in its history of 26 years, democratic structure and the attitude that INZBC is not exclusive and instead inclusive and is always willing to partner with like-minded organisations to progress forward. This robust democratic organisation is consulted by the Governments of both NZ and India and is committed to a high quality FTA. As a word of caution, with the success of INZBC, many copycat fly by night organisations are also sprouting up, which are non-democratic in nature and with the sole aim of self-promotion of a few individuals. The Business community and the Governments should be aware of such personal agendas and not promote them as this can potentially have a disastrous effect on the NZ-India trade.”

He further added “Our efforts at INZBC has been closely watched by the industry and we are lucky to have serious industry partners like Westpac, who are supporting our initiatives in the India-NZ trade space. Westpac is our strategic partner and we work closely with them to provide benefits to our members and the business community”.

Ian Hankins, Head of Commercial, Commercial, Corporate & Institutional, Westpac says, “We are delighted to be partnering with INZBC and it's members, the cooperation and collaboration through a range of formal and informal events have been outstanding and we have great confidence in our partnership growing. The Indian community has and will continue to add an enormous amount of cultural and economic capital to New Zealand and we are committed to supporting this community grow and succeed. We see a great opportunity for INZBC to provide a gateway for our clients to enter India as well and have started some conversations in this space already. We see our role at Westpac as giving our clients and partners the confidence to act through our knowledge, support and motivation, this requires a bias to action and I have found INZBC to be a partner that is action orientated too and like us are committed to growing a stronger connection between NZ and India. We look forward to a growing relationship and success with our shared vision.”

Francesca Hibron from Education NZ has also voiced her opinion on the good work done by INZBC. She says, “The INZBC is a valued partner for Education New Zealand. With our focus on education trade it’s essential that we understand India’s vast business landscape and how to do business there. The INZBC helps us do this. In partnering with the INZBC for the annual Summit, we’ve been able to jointly raise the profile of India with the New Zealand Government. And we’ve also had the pleasure of working together on cultivating government and commercial partnerships through the delivery of a symposium showcasing New Zealand’s best practices in human development, skills and training. The INZBC continues to be a valuable partner in increasing the understanding of trends, the challenges and the opportunities with India.”

The way forward

INZBC Chair Robert barker says, “Every organisation should be forward looking and cannot sit on its laurels. We are working constantly with our partners to deliver more for our stakeholders and members. We have got feedback from our stakeholders and we are working on it to make further improvements and constantly evolving and reinventing the organisation”.

“INZBC will be announcing more initiatives with time and remains committed to improving business beyond barriers.”

For more information visit: www.inzbc.org

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