OTF group and Global network sign MOU for cluster development

Ahmedabad, Apr 10 (UNI) An Indo-US initiative has been launched for cluster development in India with USA-based OTF group and Global Network of India today signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to form a joint company in India.

This relationship builds upon the excellent and complementary relation that Global Network and OTF Group have enjoyed as partners on the Afghanistan Competitiveness Project, a two-year USAID-funded project, designed to enhance the competitiveness of key export clusters in Afghanistan.

Global Network brings deep and operational knowledge of India while OTF Group supports this local knowledge with proven frameworks and technology for building competitive clusters, world class analysis and integration skills, and a global brand that will all help to frame choices and build consensus around how to build competitiveness of India's economy.

Under cluster development, the JV would try to create global and regional markets, instead of protected markets, with micro-economic focus, flexible and meritocratic organisations and informed investment choices with support from development partners.

The new venture will use the expertise and cluster development models of the US partner and replicate similar models in the Indian small and medium enterprise (SME) sector. Apart from providing integrated frameworks for building competitive clusters, Global Network - OTF JV will also provide technology in terms of cluster development, including analysis, foreign marketing research and cluster selection and integration of the data.

''We will help the group to communicate with the government and identify the clusters and the areas to be developed.'' Both the firms accepted that there were several challenges for cluster development in India. Global Network and OTF Group accepted there was a lack of public-private sector dialogue resulting in low trust, while there was no quantitative targets for the cluster.

''We need to understand that the world has changed dramatically.

Political boundaries have disappeared, costs of communication, transportation and learning are declining rapidly. We should understand that the economic growth and social equity are the same thing,'' the group said.

They further added that one should understand that the private sector needs to invest more in learning, customer preferences, knowledge of position relative to competition, possibilities of changing the distribution channel and investing to upgrade its product mix.

UNI