Piyush Goyal meets Lenovo, Carrier to discuss localisation, exports

Piyush Goyal met Lenovo and Carrier leaders to discuss localisation and leveraging FTAs. He also urged MedTech startups to scale affordable innovations for global markets, highlighting India's trade agreements covering 70% of global GDP.

Goyal Meets Lenovo, Carrier Leaders

Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday met with Lenovo and Carrier leaders to discuss various initiatives and opportunities. On the social media platform X, Minister Goyal shared two separate posts about his meeting with Michael L. Gierges, President - Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, Carrier, and Matthew Zielinski, President, International Markets, Lenovo.

During his meeting with Gierges, Goyal said, "Discussions focused on Carrier's growing presence in India, its manufacturing and technology initiatives, and opportunities to further deepen localisation across the value chain and collaboration to strengthen India's industrial ecosystem." While with Zielinski, Goyal discussed Lenovo's expanding operations in India, growing exports, and plans to deepen localisation across the electronics value chain. "We also exchanged views on key opportunities that India's FTAs offer and how the company can leverage them by enhancing collaboration in emerging areas such as data centres and AI," he said.

Minister Addresses MedTech Innovators

Earlier in the day, the minister also interacted with startups at the INDovation MedTech Innovation & Startup Showcase and felicitated the winners of the INDovation Program. In another post on X, he said that at the event, he urged participants to focus on affordable, scalable MedTech products to serve India and the world. "Highlighted how the recently concluded FTAs with the developed world are a big window of opportunity for our innovators to make India a reliable, quality healthcare partner globally," he said.

Leveraging India's Free Trade Agreements

During the event, Piyush Goyal urged medtech startups to look beyond the domestic market, leverage India's expanding trade agreements, which cover nearly 70% of global GDP, and scale affordable innovations to serve both India and the world.

He noted that nine Free Trade Agreements concluded in the last three years cover 38 countries with strong per capita incomes, and that most developed markets now have trade arrangements with India. Agreements include the 27-nation EU bloc, the four-nation EFTA bloc, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, the United States of America, and Japan and Korea, which were concluded earlier, along with ASEAN nations. He said India now has market access to 70% of global GDP, in most cases at zero duty for Indian products.

Government Support and Global Collaboration

Goyal said startups should not limit themselves to the domestic market and should participate in global fairs and exhibitions. He assured that the Commerce Ministry would support delegations and that India's missions in over 190 countries are available to assist innovators. He also encouraged collaboration with global companies operating in over 100 countries to access developed markets.

Innovation for India's Needs

Minister Goyal also stressed that innovation must address India's day-to-day needs and ground-level imperatives. He underlined the importance of showcasing success stories and urged Startup India, the private sector and the media to encourage entrepreneurs, including those who may not succeed initially. (ANI)

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