Head of Tomsk Center for Export Support A. Belyaev

April saw an important date – 70th anniversary of the establishment of Russian-Indian relationships. Tomsk CCI business trip to this country was timed to this event. Director of the regional Center for Export Support of Tomsk CCI, Aleksandr Belyaev, gave to the «Interfaks-Sibir» agency the interview about the results of the trip.

  April saw an important date – 70^th anniversary of the establishment of Russian-Indian relationships. Tomsk CCI business trip to this country was timed to this event. Director of the regional Center for Export Support of Tomsk CCI, Aleksandr Belyaev, gave to the «Interfaks-Sibir» agency the interview about the results of the trip.

  - Aleksandr Nikolaevich, is India a new trading partner for Tomsk region? How have the relationships been evolving?

  - You’ve already mentioned the 70^th anniversary, and year 2017 is associated with this event. India is going to be the official partner of Saint-Petersburg economic forum, there will be a meeting of state leaders, sessions of intergovernmental commissions, so actual business contacts of Russian region and Indian entrepreneurs are highly welcomed.

  Tomsk region started communicating with this country not because of the anniversary. We’ve been working in this direction for 6 years. But this year Indian side for the first time offered that we became an operator of the Russian delegation on the 3^rd forum Global Exhibition of Services. It is a national Indian forum, which took place near Deli, in big state Uttar Pradesh with 180 million of population – it’s more than in Russia.

  - Can you please elaborate on the event you took part in?

  Earlier the exhibition was opened by the prime-minister, now it is held under the aegis of the president of India. Exhibition turned out to be quite distinguished: it united not only Indian companies, but also many Indian states, represented by government or development corporations’ administration. Moreover, China was the official partner of the exhibition; there were delegations from several African countries.

  There was only one official delegation from Russia, and Tomsk CCI acted as its organizer. Delegation included 14 companies, among them were representatives of Kemerovo region companies, Krasnodar region and Saint-Petersburg.

  The exhibition is dedicated to services, so we invited Tomsk companies, that potentially can export their services to Indian market, or are interested in other types of collaboration with Indian side. First of all we invited three private medical clinics. Representatives of DI Group holding, managing football schools’ network «Yunior», came with us. «Yunior» is probably the biggest franchising network of children’s football schools in the world. We also introduced to India «33 penguins» brand – one of the most dynamical franchising products in Russia. Goods’ manufacturers were also involved – companies that produce medical equipment, children’s toys, «Tomskkabel» plant.

  We didn’t have our own stand, but Tomsk region participation didn’t come unnoticed: our participants worked hard, they had 60 meetings and negotiations, resulting in perspective contacts.

  - Can you tell in brief, which Tomsk companies aroused the greatest interest?

  - The biggest interest was to «Yunior» school franchise, it already works in many former USSR countries, in Spain, Singapore, Indonesia. DI Group received three partner offers from Indian companies, at the moment they are negotiating and it’s highly possible, that the franchise is going to appear in India despite the fact that this sport is not very common there. In India there is no such system of children sport, they don’t even have extracurricular activities in schools. The market is very promising.

  It was surprising that Uganda representatives also showed interest to «Yunior». They had negotiations and we hope for signing an agreement.

  Engineering company «Valter» which constructed LPK «Partner-Tomsk) (now «Latat»), second chipboard plant in «Tomlesdrev» group of companies, also aroused great interest, as well as some other Russian plants.

  Judging from the interest to «33 penguins» franchise, Indians love ice-cream. We also hope that this business will find new partners in India.

  I should definitely tell about Tomsk scientific and educational potential, especially about medical cluster. Nowadays Indian private medicine is a leader in international medical tourism, it offers the best price-performance ratio. We saw ourselves that wealthy people from CIS countries. Africa and Middle East are getting treatment in Indian clinics.

  Our clinics did great job here, they managed to meet with the leading cardiac surgeon of the country Naresh Trekhan. We told him about our opportunities, and he expressed the wish to pay a return visit to Tomsk during some cardiology event. Moreover, well-known Tomsk specialist in reproductive medicine Yuliya Spirina received the confirmation that she can hold teleconferences with Indian colleauges.

  - Did you interact with trade mission of Russia in India?

  -Trade mission helped us a lot. Head of trade mission Yaroslav Viktorovich Tarasyuk likes our region a lot, to say straight. Earlier he participated in negotiations in two states, and I don’t remember him working so closely with someone else. There is a national project «Make in India» in India, during one of the trips an idea of the continuation of this project came to him: «Invent in Russia, make in India, sell all over the world». We presented our potential in trade mission, and they promised to help us in promoting our product to Indian market.

  We also held a presentation in the Confederation of Industry of India, which was the organizer of the exhibition. The status of the Confederation is underlined by the fact, that it organizes the big delegation to the Petersburg economic forum, which is going to accompany Indian prime minister. Director of the Confederation for international relationships Mr. Shrikumar Nair promised to organize at the second half of the year 2017 a visit of Indian businessmen to Tomsk region.

  -What is Tomsk region exporting to India at present?

  -There is no other regions in Russia, where there are two Indian state oil companies at the same time. I’m talking about ONGC and Oil India. This is a sign of special interest to our territory.

  At the same tame goods turnover with India is minimal – export in 2016 totaled in $450 thousand, and it’s structure is very peculiar: one third is technology products- particle accelerators, another third – food products, and we can add to this educational and IT services, which have good potential.

  There are reasonable obstacles in trading goods with India – we are far away from each other, logistics is difficult. That is why we concentrated on promoting services, because they can be exported despite the distance.