Metro Detroit is coming to India for R&D

By agencies   |   Wednesday, 17 August 2005, 19:30 IST
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DETROIT: India's growing vehicle market and its related research and technical activities will be the focus of Metro Detroit's main economic development agency next year as it attempts to boost the state's ailing economy. "We're going to India to market Metro Detroit as the brain center of the automotive industry," said John W. Carroll Jr., executive director of the Detroit Regional Economic Partnership, a job attraction agency in Detroit affiliated with the Detroit Regional Chamber. The agency's specific activities in India will be announced later. "We will encourage India's auto producers to have a presence at the North American International Auto Show," Carroll said. "We don't feel we'll draw actual manufacturing facilities given India's vast labor market, but certainly we can make a good case for landing research and technical centers, much like we've done with Japan, Korea, China and Europe." Rising affluence and an economic expansion are stoking demand for more cars and SUVs in India, a nation of 1.1 billion people. Auto sales in India expanded by 30 percent in 2004 to 1.3 million vehicles, with car sales topping 1 million for the first time. The market is still dominated by local manufacturers, but foreign-led automakers, notably South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co., are making rapid inroads.