On December 18^th 2019, the Investment Promotion Conference of Tamil Nadu (India) was held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Jiangbei District (Chongqing). The World Chilli Alliance (WCA) was invited to participate in the conference together with about 40 Chongqing enterprises to discuss potential cooperation between China and India in export trade and industrial investment.

Speech delivered by J. Snehaja, Second Secretary of the Economic and Commercial Department of the Embassy of India

The Second Secretary of the Department of Economy and Commerce of the Embassy of India Ms J. Snehaja, the Deputy Director of Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce Mr Xiong Lin, The MD & CEO of Guidance Tamil Nadu Dr. Neeraj Mittal IAS and others attended the meeting and delivered a speech.

Speech of Xiong Lin, Deputy Director of Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce

Mr Xiong Lin stressed that Chongqing has already fully integrated into the "One Belt One Road" Initiative to speed up the construction of an economic attrctive and competitive inland open highland. By making full use of the advantages of "1 + 2 + 7 + 9" open platform system and preferential policies, Chongqing has achieved new breakthroughs in becoming an open highland from being an inland city, and its export trade and international reputation have continued to rise. At present, Chongqing's export value to India is 11.4 billion RMB, up 38.6% year-over-year. In the future, Chongqing will seize the opportunity to develop and continue to deepen cooperation with India.

Speech by Dr. Neeraj Mittal IAS

According to what Dr. Neeraj Mittal IAS said, Tamil Nadu is the second largest state in India with the highest economy, with an average annual economic growth of 9%. Tamil Nadu is particularly developed in the fields of agriculture and food processing, aviation and national defense, automobile and auto parts, information technology and scientific and technological services, new energy, biopharmaceutics, etc. In recent years, Tamil Nadu has become one of India's foreign investment centres.

Dr. Neeraj Mittal said that Tamil Nadu is a land full of opportunities

At the same time, it is also mentioned that Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, is the fourth largest city in India, and that it established friendly relations with the Municipality of Chongqing in 2015. The two sides are highly complementary and have great potential for cooperation. At present, they have cooperation and exchanges in economic, trade, culture and other fields.

Questions from Michele Diella, a member of DeZhuang International

Michele Diella, Global Supply Manager of DeZhuang International, was honored to directly ask questions during the Q&A session at the promotion conference. 

Michele asked about the development of the local food processing industry and chilli pepper industry in Tamil Nadu.

The Representative of the government of Tamil Nadu indicated that the food processing industry in Tamil Nadu is a key local development industry, and has a complete food processing chain which integrates harvesting, sales and export. For the chilli pepper industry, India is a big chilli producing and consuming country, and has many chilli pepper varieties. The local chilli is not only exported but is also used in a wide range of products.

After the meeting, the World Chilli Alliance and government representatives of Tamil Nadu had an interesting discussion on agriculture and food industry to understand the market environment, preferential policies and potential for growth of Tamil Nadu in these two fields. The representatives of Tamil Nadu introduced the current situation of Indian urban development, distribution of agriculture and the general situation of the chilli industry, and invited the World Chilli Alliance to visit the local characteristic chilli pepper varieties and the chilli industry in India, looking forward to future cooperation with WCA in support of Indian chilli pepper.

In the middle oft he picture: Aditya Nagarajan, senior manager of Guidance Tamil Nadu

On the right side oft he picture: Michele Diella, Global Supply Manager of Dezhuang International

On the right side of the picture: Zhang Yijin, Secretary General Assistant of the World Chilli Alliance

On the left side of the picture: Dr. Neeraj Mittal IAS, MD & CEO of Guidance Tamil Nadu

On the right side oft he picture: J. Snehaja, Second Secretary of the Economic and Commercial Department of the Embassy of India

On this occasion, the World Chilli Alliance had the chance to establish contacts with Indian representatives. The Alliance hopes to explore the different Indian chilli pepper varieties in the future and is willing to work together to carry out a series of cooperation, with the aim of expanding trade and investments and achieving mutual benefit and win-win outcome.