The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Minnesota Governor chants the ‘insourcing’ mantra

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Thursday, Oct 25, 2007
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Minnesota Governor chants the ‘insourcing’ mantra

Staff Reporter

Trade delegation seeks to do business with India

India is Minnesota’s 22nd largest trade partner
The State exported $129.5 million goods to India in 2006

Tim Pawlenty

BANGALORE: As the first trade mission from Minnesota State led by its Governor visited India this week, the buzzword is “insourcing” as far as Governor Tim Pawlenty is concerned. In Bangalore on Wednesday to interact with business leaders as part of the round table coordinated by the U.S. Consulate-General, Chennai, Mr. Pawlenty explained “insourcing” as the means to get the greatest minds, enterprise and innovation into Minnesota rather than outsource them.

Speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of the roundtable, Mr. Pawlenty said insourcing was already a reality in Minnesota, where Indian companies such as Tata, Wipro and Suzlon, Asia’s largest manufacturer of wind turbine, were already a major presence in Minnesota, trying to synergise energy production with environmental concerns.

The trade mission to India, which met with industry leaders in Delhi, and will move to Mumbai, is one of the largest missions from an U.S. State to visit India, with 73 participants. Representatives of IBM, Best Buy, 3M, and CH Robinson are part of the delegation, since Minnesota is a major exporter of computer and electronics products, and medical devices.

India is Minnesota’s 22nd largest trade partner, but exports from Minnesota to India grew 270 per cent between 1998 and 2006. There is significant room for additional growth. Minnesota exported $129.5 million in manufactured goods to India in 2006.

Investment

Mr. Pawlenty said Minnesota would be looking at investment and exchange with India in the agriculture and food processing sector. “I am told that though India is one of the largest producers of fruits and vegetables, it loses nearly 40 per cent of the produce to rotting before reaching the market. India can truly benefit from our food processing technologies and also look at exporting to us,” he said.

He gave credit for the trade mission to Senator Satveer Chaudhary, who hails from Haryana, and has been talking about the importance of getting Minnesota business and industry interested in India’s economy, because “India, with a population of 1.1 billion, and a middle class that is larger than the entire population of U.S., is one of the world’s largest untapped markets.”

During the Delhi round table, Haryana and Minnesota have signed up to be “sister-States.”

Immigration policy

Mr. Pawlenty admitted that the question mark on easing immigration policy would impact on trade, but maintained that efforts were on at various levels to achieve a more liberal policy in issuing H1B visas. Attempts to solve the knotty problem of illegal immigrants was affecting other aspirants and this in turn affects the U.S. economy, he said.

Mr. Pawlenty said though Minnesota was not one of the “big States” in the U.S., it had several things going for it. While there was nation-wide concern about nearly one-third of the school-going children dropping out, Minnesota had the highest number of students excelling in ACT (American College Testing Assessment) and had the highest health indices for the ninth time in row.

Wednesday’s round table was attended by NASSCOM Chairman Som Mittal, representatives several IT companies based in Bangalore and the Karnataka Chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce.

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