“I Urge Indian and Austrian Businesses to Forge Stronger Business Ties”: Prime Minister Narendra Modi to business in Austria
India and Austria share strong historic relations, backed by the shared value of democracy and this forum will help to give strategic frame to the relations, said Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, while addressing the India-Austria Business Forum in Vienna, Austria. The event was organized by Confederation of Indian Industry in partnership with the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber and Federation of Austrian Industries.
The Prime Minister urged that along with Governments of both countries, the private sector should also strengthen collaboration between them. On one hand India has a strong manufacturing base and a skilled workforce. On the other hand, Austria has a strong technological ecosystem. These together will give rise to a spectrum of possibilities for both countries.
The Prime Minister stated that India has a lot to offer with reforms such as Ease of doing business, structured reforms, reduction in compliance burden, tax reforms, reduction in corporate tax, etc.
The Indian Government is looking forward to many more initiatives which are growth oriented, said the Prime Minister. Shri Modi said that Austria is already India’s partner in many areas and urged all to leverage the upcoming opportunities and foster stronger collaboration.
India is the third largest start-up ecosystem with over 1 lakh startups, over 100 unicorns and Austria is a start-up hub. The Prime Minister urged the two countries to create a joint hackathon. India is moving towards achieving 500 GW of renewable energy, Hydrogen Mission, India is a fintech hub with an unparallel digital public infrastructure including Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which is connecting the world.
The Prime Minister said that Make in India and Make for the World has been the motto of the Indian Government. Newer opportunities arising in thriving segments of manufacturing like semiconductor, PV cells, medical devices electric batteries should be leveraged. Production Linked Incentives (PLIs) in 14 sectors have been started. The National Gati Shakti Infrastructure masterplan, Multimodal connectivity of USD 1.4 trillion pave the way for partnership opportunities. The India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor is a step in this direction, he added. Bilateral trade has been on the increase between India and Austria and this makes India one of the most important trading partners to Austria outside the EU. I look forward to greater collaboration between India and Austria to benefit the two economies and people, said H.E. Mr Karl Nehammer, Chancellor of Austria.
There is enormous opportunities between India and Austria to strengthen economic ties and ecological ties, said Mr Martin Kocher, Federal Minister of Labour and Economy.
India – Austria Sustainability platform may be set up for B2B collaboration on critical sustainability themes, such as battery and storage research and green hydrogen. CII would be privileged to co-partner and be the secretariat for this platform, said Mr Sanjiv Puri, President CII, and Chairman and Managing Director, ITC Ltd.
We believe that Austria can be India’s gateway to Europe, particularly in sectors like automotive components, machinery, pharmaceuticals, and electronics. India’s capacity and talent can help Austrian companies build scale in global value chains, said Mr R Dinesh, Executive Chairman, TVS Supply Chain Solutions.
India’s digital transformation is creating some great opportunities in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Austrian companies must leverage India’s Digital Stack and AI policies to drive their competitiveness and invest in India’s talent, said Mr Tejpreet Chopra, President and CEO, Bharat Light & Power Private Ltd.
Indian companies representing large enterprises from conventional sectors to startups in new-age sectors of space-tech and robotics are keen to partner with Austria in high-tech and sustainability projects for the world, said Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII.
The event was marked by high level discussions which were primarily centred around three areas, viz. sustainability, resilient supply chains, and new and emerging technologies, with about 30 Austrian companies present.
10 July 2024
Vienna, Austria