Nottingham is winning headlines and deals over in India on the back of a successful visit by Nottingham City Council officials that will result in a city partnership with Chandigarh. This could lead to trade opportunities for local businesses into the new market.
A third Nottingham delegation visit to India returns to the UK tomorrow having secured further partnerships and relationships with potential investors.
The delegation, which included Nottingham business leaders and representatives from the Council, met with key investors, visited the World Hindu Economic Forum in Delhi and hosted a number of business seminars in partnership with UKTI.
Now, the group has been formally invited to propose a city to city partnership arrangement with Chandigarh that will support knowledge exchange, trade & investment between the two major cities.
The agreement is expected to be formally approved by March next year at the same time as multiple collaborative links between the University of Nottingham and Panjab University, pursuing commercial research and student exchange, are confirmed.
Nottingham City Council and local business leaders identified the city of Chandigarh as a key partner in Nottingham’s international trade and investment strategy, a union territory that connects the Punjab and Harayana states in Northern India and also is also the home to Panjab University, the largest university in India.
The Nottingham delegation has found itself in great demand during the visit. The group met with around 70 businesses at seminars in Delhi and Chandigarh and made further connections at a Business Angels event and at the World Hindu Economic Forum.
Cllr Nick McDonald reported: “This has been an extremely positive visit to Chandigarh with a number of proposed projects, links and partnerships now coming to fruition. At the same time we have met with many entrepreneurs here with exciting products and business plans looking for a foothold in the UK in order to access the wider European market. Several of these businesses are ready to invest and have been invited to visit Nottingham. We have found that the people we have met here, businesses and academics, have a keen appetite for the UK, and Nottingham’s connectivity and competitiveness has grabbed their attention.”
“There are also exciting opportunities for Nottingham businesses to forge links with India, particularly those operating in the ICT, clean-tech and infrastructure sectors, as ‘Smart Cities’ are a key next step in India’s economic development.”
