H E Ms. Melinda Pavek, Consul General Of The USA Attends Interactive Session At ICC
Strategic location advantage, an abundance of natural resources, and a rich talent pool are the three focal points that need to be showcased for realizing the growth potential of Eastern India. This was stated by H E Ms. Melinda Pavek, Consul General of The United States of America while addressing an interactive session organized by the Indian Chamber of Commerce.
The session focused on “Business Opportunities for Indian Businessmen in the US”.
Ms. Melinda Pavek has assumed the position of Consul General of The United States of America in Kolkata in August of 2021.
Eastern India has tremendous growth potential. To translate the region’s development aspirations into a substantial quantitative increase in the region’s Gross Domestic Product, the stakeholders including business organizations need to showcase the region’s strategic location, an abundance of natural resources, and rich talent pool.
Ms. Pavek earlier stated that the US is India’s largest trading partner and export market. She cited that the value of trade between the two countries has grown from over USD 20 billion in 2001 to over USD 145 billion in 2019.
She was also optimistic that the trade will rebound in the post-pandemic days as the trade figures till August 2021 had seen a 50% increase compared to the previous year’s figure.
She also added that the US companies have been consistently the largest source of FDI creating over 5 million jobs in the formal sector.
Citing a mutually beneficial relationship between the two countries, she cited that the stock of Indian FDI in the US is about USD 12.7 billion supporting 70,000 US jobs. It also contributed to USD 226 million in Research & Development and USD 2.2 billion in US exports.
Earlier, Mr. Sanjay Budhia, Past President, Indian Chamber of Commerce & MD, Patton International Limited in his Welcome Remarks described the trading relationship between the two countries as “Reliable, Robust, Risk-free”.
Mr. Rudra Chatterjee, Past President, Indian Chamber of Commerce & Chairman, Obeetee gave the formal Vote of Thanks.