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CII opens Brussels office
By siliconindia
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Monday, 23 September 2002, 19:30 IST
BANGALORE: The Confederation of Indian Industry has opened its 12th overseas office in Brussels recently. The office in Brussels, the fifth in Europe after CII's strong network in London, Milan, Paris and Vienna, would help CII in its ongoing initiatives of strengthening its work and relationship with the European Union, European Commission and Belgium in particular.
The opening of the CII office in Brussels, a few weeks before the Indo-EU Business Summit scheduled in Copenhagen on October 8th and 9th, 2002, is a testimony to CII's commitment to expand and strengthen its partnership with the European industry and business. The CII would also play a proactive role to facilitate greater dialogue and partnership between the European Commission and the Indian Industry.
European Union is India's largest trading partner and has emerged as India's largest investor in terms of actual inflows during the 1990s. In 2001, EU accounted for 23.37% of India's exports and 20.75% of total Indian imports with trade increasing by 150% between 1991 and 2001. In terms of actual FDI inflow, EU accounted for EU Euro 2674.03 million, ahead of the US (Euro 2216.73 million).
On the bilateral front, Belgium is amongst India's top five trading and investment partners in European Union. In 2001, the bilateral trade between India and Belgium reached US $4.1 billion, with India's share in Asia being 16.86% for exports and 7.42% for imports. On the investment front also, Belgium's total investments approved between 1991-2001 was Rs 41,599.7 million. Major Belgian companies and banks like Tractebel. Besix, Bekaert, Dredging International, BBL, KBC and Fortis Bank have already their presence in India.