Indian Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers Association (IEEMA) held the first ever virtual Buyer Seller Meet, e-Connect, with the goal of raising exports from $7 billion to $25 billion by 2025. The push for an 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' is aimed at making India self-reliant, gets support by the electrical equipment industry's capability to manufacture components as per International Standards. It can also be a great substitute for the import materials / components required by the power sector. With this framework, the international business division of IEEMA conceptualized the idea of e-Connect. This virtual meeting provided a chance to promote B2B meetings on the lines of Reverse Buyer-Seller Meet (RBSM).

 “In first phase we are targeting 20 plus counties in three months across SAARC, AFRICA, MIDDLE EAST & FAR EAST. These meetings will provide business opportunity for the MSMEs in India,” explained Harish Agarwal, Chairman, IEEMA International Business Division, briefing on the initiative.  “We hope to have more than 250 sellers on board during this first phase and are targeting to establish connect with 1000 stakeholders overseas. We hope to have more than 5000 meetings out of this connect with an aim to boost the export of electrical equipment from $7 billion to $25 billion by 2025.”

 “The kind of economic growth that India is aspiring can’t be achieved unless we substantially enhance our global footprints. This COVID situation presented us with a similar window of opportunity. The world, constrained by travel restrictions, was rapidly adapting to connect through virtual platforms,” opined RK Chugh, President, IEEMA. “It was felt that first step to go global effectively was to enhance the width and depth of the connect with stake holders globally covering all relationship areas as buyers, consultants and agents, investors, JV partners for last mile manufacturing or activities such as commissioning, O&M or after sales service and even partners for technology transfer and It took less than 45 days to transform a brain wave into actual connect namely e-Connect.”

For more information: www.ieema.org