New Delhi, Apr. 17: Coinciding with President Pratibha Patil's visit to Latin American countries, a high-level delegation of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is visiting Brazil, Mexico and Chile from April 13 to April 22 to discuss business opportunities and strengthen the existing business partnerships.

Addressing business representatives from India and Brazil in Sao Paulo on Wednesday, Patil lauded the efforts of CII in strengthening the ties between India and Brazil.

She said: "I am pleased that Federacao das Industrias do Estado de Sao Paulo (FIESP) has taken the initiative to organize this meeting. The Confederation of Indian Industry also needs to be complimented for mounting a group of enterprising Indian businessmen who are here in Brazil in search of business opportunities. This meeting today, between FIESP and CII, is an unique gathering of businessmen representing two populous, democratic and fast growing economies of the world."

"Both India and Brazil are large and growing economies. Our natural synergies and economic complementarities can be exploited to mutual benefit," Patil said.

"Our bilateral trade with Brazil has almost trebled over the last three years to 3.12 billion dollars in 2007. It is encouraging that it was 600 million dollars in the first two months of this year. We are determined to achieve the trade target of 10 billion dollars by 2010," she added.

India has strengths in services, IT, pharma, auto components and agricultural equipment to name a few. Our requirements in infrastrure are huge. Brazil has strengths in the latter, including agriculture. I would, therefore, urge you to to exploit these obvious complementarities that exist between our two countries for mutual benefit.

CII will also look at areas to boost trade relations with Mexico. The current bilateral engagements indicate that there is vast scope for improvement. For instance, two-way trade totaled a mere 1.8 billion dollars (€1.3 billion) in 2006, or less than one percent of what each of the countries trade with the rest of the world. India and Mexico have already agreed that bilateral trade should increase to five billion dollars by 2010. Information technology, pharmaceuticals and energy sectors are seen as key areas of cooperation.

CII meetings in Chile will be organized by Pais Digital and Chile India Chambers of Commerce in Santiago. India's total exports to Chile for the year 2006-2007 were recorded at 375.02 dollars. This was 146 percent higher than 2005-2006. India's total imports from Mexico for the year 2006-2007 were recorded at 1,916.34 dollars. This was
341 percent higher than the year 2005-2006.

During the course of visit, the delegation will meet business leaders in Sao Paulo, Rio De Janeiro, Brasilia, Cancun, Mexico City, Guadalajara and Santiago. The meetings in Brazil would be organised by CII's partners FIESP (Federacao das Industrias do Estado de Sao Paulo) in Sao Paulo, FIRJAN in Rio de Janeiro, CNI in Brasilia, PROMEXICO in Cancun, COMCE and India Mexico Business Chambers in Mexico City and Guadalajara respectively. The CII business delegation will attend a special ceremony in the University of Chile where an Honorary Doctorate degree would be conferred upon the Hon'ble President of India.

The business delegation led by Mr. Madhur Bajaj, Vice Chairman Bajaj, Auto Limited, includes: Mr Shubhendu Amitabh of Aditya Birla Group, Mr. Apurv Kumar of CII Rajasthan State Council & UP Hotels Limited, Mr. Ketan Patel of Claris Life Sciences Limited, Mr P Dhariwal of Essar Steel Caribbean Limited, Mr Rashid Kidwai of Grassroots Trading Network for Women, Mr. Biswadip Gupta of JSW West Bengal Limited, Mr. Arun Mubayi of JSW Group, Mr. Tuhin Mukherjee of JSW Steel Limited, Dr. Srinivas Reddy of Maytas Infra Limited, Ms Rama Raghu Iyer of NIIT Limited, Mr Vikram Pandit of Praj Industries, Mr Dinesh Chandra Shahra of Ruchi Soya Group, Mr. Rajju Shroff of United Phosphorus Limited, Dr. Gunveena Chadha of Confederation of Indian Industry, Mr. Rajendra Khatate of Confederation of Indian Industry. Ms Reema Nanavaty, Ms Mona Dave and Ms. Manju Chhabra from Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) are also part of the CII delegation. (ANI)