Hanover, Germany--A giant statue of an Indian elephant dominates the stand of German cable maker Lapp at this year's Hanover Fair, the world's largest industrial trade show, which opened Monday.
Stuttgart-based Lapp and a host of other German industrial companies are lining up to tap into the growth potential of India, Asia's third-biggest economy, which is the partner country of this year's fair and is eagerly wooing foreign investors to help modernise its industry.
The family-run firm, with a workforce of 3,200, has been active on the densely populated sub-continent since the mid-1990s, believing that its democratic structures, patent protection laws and wide use of English make it an easier market to crack than, say, China, a company spokesman told AFP.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on his first official visit to Germany this week, jointly opened the "Hannover Messe" with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"We will make it easy to make business in India," Modi told invited politicians, business leaders and exhibiting companies at the opening ceremony on Sunday evening.
"The opportunities we offer are huge. For people in India, Germany is a valued partner and symbol of technology, innovation, quality," Modi said.
For India, Asia's number three economy after China and Japan, Germany is already the most important trading partner in Europe. But for Germany, Europe's largest economy, India ranks just 25th on the list of countries it does business with.
Following a tour of the fair with Modi on Monday, Merkel acknowledged there was "still potential for German companies to grow in India".
In concrete terms, bilateral trade between the two countries amounted to 16 billion euros ($16.9 billion) in 2014, with Germany exporting nearly 9.0 billion euros worth of goods to India.
AFP
