The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Diplomats want India to cut red tape

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Diplomats want India to cut red tape

Suresh Krishnamoorthy

Delay in issuing visas to businessmen creating hurdles, aver Latin American envoys at a seminar

- Photo: G. Krishnaswamy

Key deliberations: Diplomats of Latin American countries at a seminar in Hyderabad on Friday.

HYDERABAD: Diplomats from six Latin American countries said bilateral trade with India would grow by leaps and bounds if only bureaucratic wrangles in processing visas were removed and money transfer regulations simplified.

They observed that the delay in issuing visas to their businessmen is creating hurdles when they need to visit India to import goods and services.

Argentina’s Ambassador to India, Ernesto Carlos Alvarez, said that his country had recently decided to issue five-year, multiple-entry visas for any Indian who wants to do business with Argentina and that too, free of cost.

All that he needs is to submit correct documents, he told a gathering at a seminar on ‘Latin American Countries: Business and Investment Opportunities’, organised here by the Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC), India.

As for Indian businessmen in Argentina, he said there are virtually no restrictions on what they could not buy in that nation.

“All that is required is money in the bank. Indian businessmen can transfer money at the press of a button from Argentina,” he said, adding that unlike the Reserve Bank of India’s rules, people did not have to sign several documents.

Three other Ambassadors — Carlos Abad (Ecuador), Genero Vicente Pappalardo (Paraguay) and Javier Paulinich Velarde, and other New Delhi-based diplomats Nestor Riveros representing Chile, Alejandro Pelaez (Columbia) and Kiva Clarke (Trinidad and Tobago), attended the seminar.

Open economies

The diplomats said as their nations were ‘open economies’, there is virtually no barrier for businessmen in the Latin American region and Trinidad and Tobago.

Their exports are primarily food products, including fruit and seafood, minerals and metals, while imports are chiefly components for their manufacturing, gas and petroleum sectors.

There is an infrastructure boom in Latin America and this is a sector where they can use India’s help as also in the Information and Communication Technology that is also picking up.

Productive seminar

Mahesh Desai, National Vice-Chairman, EEPC (India), described the seminar as the most productive, going by the number of diplomats who attended and showcased their countries’ potential in terms of imports and exports. Interestingly, except Argentina, all the other nations import more from India than export.

Sumit Mehrotra, Zonal Head, ICICI Bank, said “Many of the Indian exporters and those doing business in Latin America who are present here are our customers and we have a branch in Argentina too.”

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