3rd Indo-US Summit in Delhi from Sept 13

New Delhi Sep 10: Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee will inaugurate a two-day Indo-US Economic Summit here on September 13, in which several issues regarding emerging opportunities for India and the possible tie-ups are likely to come up.

The third edition of the Indo-US Summit organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC), which will have a large presence of Indian and US CEOs and experts will be mainly focusing on two themes viz infrastructure and manufacturing.

Under infrastructure, focus will be on roads and ports, real estate and civil aviation.

Theme on manufacturing will discuss potentials that India has in areas like design, engineering and contract manufacturing.

The objective of the Summit is to discuss and discern the emerging opportunities in these segments and to facilitate the hand holding of the Indian and the US businessmen.

Significantly, this year, the Summit will be discussing the advantages of India as a manufacturing hub and also a sourcing point for engineering process outsourcing (EPO).

According to the reckoning of IACC, development of EPO sector will have far-reaching impact on the Indian engineering and manufacturing sector. As per estimates, the EPO market in India has the potential to exceed 40 billion dollars by 2020.

EPOs have grown by compounded annual growth rate of 37 per cent between 2003 and 2006.

Minister of State for Industry Ashwani Kumar will also address the Summit on September 14.

Many important issues that act as stumbling blocks for India's emergence as a powerhouse for engineering and manufacturing and the possible tie-ups that can be struck with the US are likely to come up at the Summit.

The Summit will also assess the emerging outsourcing opportunities for the drawing, engineering and manufacturing sectors.

UNI