UP piques interest of Brazil, Japan

Though the government has refrained from calling the upcoming UP Investors’ Summit a “global meeting”, saying that they were only able to target national investors, the summit has managed to generate interest in far off places like Brazil. While there are seven partner countries for the summit, several others including the US, Canada and UAE will be in attendance.
The contingent from Brazil will land in Lucknow on February 20 to participate in the two day-long summit.
“Brazil is a huge market of more than 200 million people who are potential customers of Indian textiles, handicraft, natural care products, khadi garments, leather products, IT services and pharmaceuticals,” said Shobhan Saxena, president of Indian Association of Brazil.
Michiel Bierkens, economic and commercial counsellor at the embassy of Netherlands said that a contingent of more than 20 companies was expected to accompany the Dutch ambassador to the summit.
“There is already some Dutch presence in UP but our companies are keen to start on more projects. An MoU has already been signed for the leather industry where a PPP between a Dutch consortium and Indian companies will introduce clean technology in the leather tannery business in Kanpur. Given the size of UP, we feel there is tremendous potential in the state. Our focus will be on dairy and water, along with other sectors like poultry, energy, sanitation and road construction,” he said.
Japan, meanwhile, has not just expressed interest in investing in development of the Buddhist sector, but companies are keen to invest in food processing, solar energy, dairy and electronics.
Sources added that about five companies will be coming from UAE. These include Lulu Group, which is investing in a mall in Gomtinagar. Its chairperson Yusuff Ali tweeted on Monday: “I am very excited to be a part of upcoming UP Investors Summit. We are unveiling and showcasing our Rs 2,000 crore investment in Lulu Mall coming up in Lucknow, during this mega event.”