Workshop for Artisans at
Jaipur
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| Mr. Rahit R Brandon, CMD, RUDA (left) presenting a bouque to the FIEO (NR)) Chairman, Dr. R K Dhawan. Dr. D. K. Sharma, Jt. Director, EMI (at centre) |
The artisans of Rajasthan are known worldwide for their craftsmanship and it is time they created their own brands in international markets, observed Mr. Mohan Lal Gupta, Ex-Mayor of Jaipur while inaugurating a Workshop on ‘Export Management and Documentation’ at Jaipur on 15th & 16th December 2006. Mr. Gupta commended the efforts of Rural Non-Furum Development Agency/Entrepreneurial Management Institute (RUDA/EMI) and FIEO to provide a platform for the artisans for learning about export procedures and documentation. "The artisans of Rajasthan need to know about export procedures so that they could directly sell their products in international markets and maximize their gains," said Mr. Gupta. He shared his experiences with the artisans and advised them to avail of the incentives provided by RUDA to participate in international fairs abroad.
The two-day Workshop was jointly organized by FIEO, RUDA/EMI (Entrepreneurship Management & Development Institute) and IIFT In order to help the process of transformation of simple, gullible artisans of Rajasthan into strategic global entrepreneurs. Almost 40 artisans from Rajasthan, including many state and national level award winners, joined the Workshop. FIEO and RUDA/EMI have already signed an MoU to impart export education to the artisans of Rajasthan to help them reap the fruits of globalization directly. RUDA/EMI is actively engaged in identifying the skilled artisans in Rajasthan and driving them to become entrepreneurs. Mr. Rohit R. Brandon, the Chief Managing Director of RUDA is known for boosting the morale of the artisans to set up their own business establishments.
The Northern Region Chairman of FIEO, Dr. R. K. Dhawan while delivering the keynote address, explained the artisans how to venture into exports step-by-step. He also briefed them about various incentive schemes available to exporters such as EPCG, advanced licenses, input output norms, deemed exports and drawback. Dr. Dhawan stressed the need of targeting export by identifying culture, taste and trends of a target country. Highlighting the importance of handicrafts in export market, he shared his experiences during his visit to Made-in-India exhibition organized by FIEO in Argentina and told the participants how the Argentinean visitors ran for Indian handicrafts during the exhibition.
Ms Leela Bordia, a handicraft exporter from Rajasthan also emphasized the need of branding of handicrafts from the state and said it would enable the exporters from Rajasthan to earn higher value for their products in international markets. Mr. Ashutosh of IITM expressed disappointment that despite global acclamation earned by Rajasthan handicrafts, their share in national handicraft exports stood at merely 2.25%. All the same, he said that such workshops would help improve this statistics. Mr. Rajeev Mathur of Infrastructure Leasing & Finance Services (IL&FS) talked about how the artisans could improve the quality and designing parameters of the ethnic items they were manufacturing.
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Dr. Saikat Banerjee, an IIFT Professor talked about how to do the homework for international marketing by gathering contact details of the buyers, by selecting right market and product, etc. His colleague, Prof. Madan Lal explained about the elements of export contracts including incoterms and various aspects of export documentation. Another faculty from IIFT, Mr. Adesh Pandey elucidated on export finance, both at pre-shipment and post-shipment stages. He said the potential entrepreneurs in today’s export business should learn how to reduce transaction cost and how to minimize the risks involved in realizing export payments. He also briefed the participants about foreign currency loans and foreign currency risk management.
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India, Romania need to share commercial information: Subhash Mittal |
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FIEO organised a luncheon meet with the visiting delegation of Romania Chamber of Commerce led by its President Mr Victor Babuic on 30th November 2006 at New Delhi. This was the first interaction between the Romanian Chamber and FIEO after they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) recently. The visiting delegates were greeted by Mr Subhash Mittal, Convenor, Committee on IT & EP along with Mr Ajay Sahai, Director General and Mr Ashok Kumar, Dy. Director General of FIEO. Mr Marian Postelnicu, Counsellor, Embassy of Romania in New Delhi was also present in the meet. |
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Stressing the need for greater exchange of commercial information between the two Chambers, Mr Mittal said it would help the businessmen from the two countries identify new areas of cooperation. He also informed about FIEO’s proposed ‘Integrated Textile Show’ scheduled to be organised in Romania in 2007. Mr Babuic during his address said that Romania contained exciting opportunities for Indian businessmen, especially in view of its integration with EU in January 2007. "A ‘step by step’ initiative between two organisations would help their members explore the potential areas of cooperation, said Mr Babuic. He offered full support to FIEO’s initiative in organising the Show in Romania. Meanwhile, the Romanian Counsellor informed that dialogues were on between the officials of both the countries to set up direct air links and hoped that soon the businessmen from the two countries would enjoy direct flights. |
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