Germany is ready to finance long-term projects in India, Matthias Machnig, State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs & Energy said after a meeting with visiting Indian CEOs delegation led by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). He also said that German cabinet has decided to finance long term strategic projects in India, particularly in the railway, infrastructure and smart cities sectors. German government has set up a special unit in the Economics Ministry to implement this decision of German Cabinet. In a meeting with CII delegation, German Federal Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said that Germany is committed to work with India for mutual benefit.
CII delegation visited Berlin on 23 January 2017 under the aegis of Embassy of India, Berlin, led by Shobana Kameneni, CII President Designate & Vice Chairperson Apollo Hospitals Ltd. This is the largest CII delegation to visit Germany since India’s participation in 2015 Hannover Messe where India was a partner country. The 10 member CII delegation also included Salil Singhal (PI Industries Ltd), Rajiv Modi (Cadila), Sanjay Kapur (Sona Koyo Steering Systems), Prabhakar Atla (Cyient Ltc), Jens Henker (Suzlon), Mohan Murti (Reliance Industries), Mukul Dhyani (Wipro) and Rajesh Menon from CII.
The delegation also participated in a round-table meeting with German CEOs led by BDI President Dieter Kempf and organized by Federal Association of German Industry (BDI) and Embassy of India. CII and BDI would be jointly working on a program, to intensify their engagements in key areas, including the skill development & VET in many sectors. The CII delegation also interacted with a number of German industry leaders from German Asia-Pacific Business Association (OAV).
CII and The Economic Council (Wirtschaftsrat der CDU e.V.) signed an MoU to strengthen economic and trade ties between India and Germany at a special event –“Germany-India Economic Dialogue” on 23rd January 2017. The agreement between CII and the Wirtschaftsrat which represents the interests of more than 11,000 small and medium sized German firms, as well as larger multinational companies will help in jointly promoting Indo-German business to business ties by means of frequent exchange visits for business cooperation, facilitating investment & business development, jointly organizing road shows in both countries for promotion of investment opportunities, etc.
The focus of the visit of CII delegation to Germany was to interact with key policy makers and industry leaders to formulate a joint road map for promotion of investments in India and strengthen Indo-German business to business ties.
