Azerbaijani, Indian textile companies explore potential for business cooperation

The Embassy of India in Baku, in association with Texprocil and Founder Club, organized an India-Azerbaijan Business Meet on Textiles Sector in hybrid mode on January 19, 2023 with the participation of the representatives of Azerbaijani and Indian textile companies in order to explore the potential for business cooperation in textile sector. About 20 Azerbaijani Companies attended the event in physical mode, while their Indian counterparts joining the event in virtual mode.

Report informs, citing the Embassy of India in Azerbaijan, that the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council or Texprocil was set up in 1954 and is the international face of the cotton textile industry facilitating exports worldwide.

In his opening address, Mr. Vinay Kumar, Chargé d'Affaires of India in Baku, highlighted that there is a huge scope for diversifying India's economic engagement with Azerbaijan. He mentioned that Indian apparel and ready-made garments like in many parts of the world are already well known in Azerbaijan both through sale by local entrepreneurs and other global franchises and underlined the huge potential for increasing market share of India in this sector in Azerbaijan.

Speaking at the event with a keynote address, Dr Siddhartha Rajagopal, Executive Director of Texprocil, said that the business meeting would provide a useful platform to gain more knowledge and access for Indian companies into the Azerbaijani market. He also informed that Texprocil is organising the "Ind-Texpo" Exhibition, which will be held on 22nd & 23rd March 2023 at the Leela Ambience Convention Hotel in New Delhi. The "Ind-Texpo" Show is the flagship event of Texprocil and is a Reverse Buyer Seller Meet wherein Texprocil will pay for the air fare (subject to a limit) and for the hotel stay for Azerbaijani business people to visit the Show in India and to do business with the Indian suppliers. The Show comprises of special B2B meeting sessions for the visiting companies with relevant exhibitors.

Ms. Leman Azizli, International Relations Manager of Founder Club, spoke about the interest of Azerbaijani textile importers for cooperation and the potential for cooperation between the two countries in textile sector.

Representatives of 10 Indian companies dealing in cotton yarns, fabrics, uniforms, home textile and ready-made garments made presentations about their companies, production capacity and export potential. This was followed by the presentations by Azerbaijani textile companies and fruitful business discussions between Indian and Azerbaijan companies in question and answer session.

According to the Azerbaijani statistics, bilateral trade between India and Azerbaijan was US$ 1.859 billion during the period from January to November 2022, with an increase of 156.5% in comparison with the same period of last year. During this period, India was Azerbaijan's fifth largest trade partner.