• Commonwealth:
• Businesses exposed to success stories

Businesses exposed to success stories

4 September 2008

Seminars organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat and EXIM Bank act as short-term ‘business school’ for companies looking to increase their competitiveness

Providing the necessary support so that businesses can flourish in their chosen fields is one of the main objectives of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s ongoing partnership with the Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM).

This collaborative work looks at what companies need to do to become increasingly competitive both at home and abroad. Through a series of seminars, where businesses are exposed to success stories by hearing first-hand experiences from renowned businessmen, this aim is realised.

One such seminar jointly hosted by the Secretariat and EXIM Bank was attended by Rahul Sanghai, Director of Paramount Minerals and Chemicals Limited, a family run business based in Thane, a major industrial belt north of Mumbai. They manufacture optical whitening agents used in textile, detergent and paper industries, 50 per cent of which is then exported abroad.

Mr Sanghai compared his experiences at the seminar to “going to business school for two days”.

The objective of this particular seminar was for participants to gain a more rounded idea of different economic outlooks of the time and, among others, they heard from Rahul Bajaj, Chair of Bajaj Auto, and Anil Khandelwal, then Chairman of the Bank of Baroda.

“This seminar gave me an insight into what big bankers and leading industrialists are doing. You try to correlate their experiences with what you are doing at a particular point in time,” Mr Sanghai said, adding that what participants learn “stands them in good stead for the future.”

The Secretariat and EXIM Bank, set up in 1981 by the Indian Government to finance, facilitate and promote foreign trade in India, began working together on projects such as this in November 2004.

“Our objective is to help businesses achieve and sustain international competitiveness so they can compete on a global level,” stated Shankarnarayan Rao, Executive Director of the Bank.

In order to accomplish this Mr Rao explained that they have consciously established alliances with other institutions like the Secretariat.

“Through common objectives we provide a forum for businesses from many Commonwealth countries to come together and learn from each other,” said Mr Rao.

Speakers from all over the world are brought together to share their experiences and past successes which have helped their businesses develop. Those present at these seminars are often presented with a toolkit developed by EXIM Bank and the Secretariat in order to help businesses grow.