Thriving in Europe, GTECH eyes Africa, Latin America next

After unlocking virgin SME markets in continental Europe, the Group of Technology Companies (GTECH), a professional grouping representing the SME sector in Kerala, is toying with the African and Latin American shores.

In the bargain, the small-scale technology sector in the State may be now emerging as the bulwark of new technology alliances and collaborations with compatible entities in the developed West and developing mid- and Far-West.

German visit

A GTECH delegation representing 13 SME companies has just had a fruitful outing to Germany and the Netherlands in the past week, says Mr Syed Ibrahim, office-bearer of GTCH and who represents Kerala on the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce.

With the establishment of a new German Consulate-General's Office in Bangalore, a southwestern region of the Chamber, comprising the states of Kerala and Karnataka, has been carved out for focused activities in South India.

According to Mr Ibrahim, the Chamber would have a huge role to play in boosting trade relations between Germany and India from the current level of €32 billion to €50 billion by 2050.

The southwestern region of the Chamber accounts for 16.7 per cent of the total FDI coming into the country, most of which is now directed into Bangalore.

Claming share

“We would like to claim a share of the cake to ourselves in Kerala,” Mr Ibrahim said, adding that the SME connectivity between Kerala and peers in Germany would be an ideal conduit to direct some of the business.

The German hosts had gone out of their way to receive the GTECH delegation and were eager to have back-to-back networking sessions in Munich, Stuttgart and Nuremberg. It was no different in both Eindhoven and Amsterdam either, Mr Ibrahim said.

“The German Chamber as also the GTECH are upbeat on the prospects. It is up to the State Government to make most of the emerging business scenario,” he added.

GTECH would now act as the one-stop destination in Kerala in regard to foreign companies looking for support in consummating tie-ups, according to Mr Binu Sankar, Chief Executive Officer.

Potential partner

Already, Kerala has emerged as a potential partner for SME businesses in Scandinavia and the rest of western European countries thanks to exploratory visits taken up by earlier GTEC delegations.

There is a major SME presence in German trade and business, and most are family owned, Mr Ibrahim said.

The fact that Indian companies are comparatively less obsessive about intellectual property rights and the lax IP regime here may, by default, have acted as rallying points for the mostly family-owned German counterparts.

In fact, this may have helped Kerala technology companies earn the Germans' vote of confidence, according to Mr Suresh V. P., Executive Director, Experion, a Technopark-based player in the mobility space.

Striking rich

A member of the GTECH delegation, Experion struck it rich during the visit, closing deals with an Amsterdam-based company and later with the Danish Army for mobility-based solutions.

Social networking solutions and the constantly evolving ‘app-ortunities' in the I-phone and Android markets are enough to ensure a constant pipeline of business for the SME sector in India, according to Mr Suresh.