The consultative committee under the chairmanship of Anand Sharma, minister of commerce and industry is going to have its first meeting in Hyderabad on September 30. This meeting will be attended by nearly twenty leaders from the industry nominated as the members of the committee.

The committee was constituted by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry two months back to address the export related issues of the industry. Dr P V Appaji, executive director, Pharmexcil informed, “The main agenda of the committee is to solve the problems relating to export promotion and regulation and to identify the trade barriers that hinder the development of the industry. It will also focus on the development of the SME sector and will work towards addressing the issues of counterfeit in the country as well.”

The meeting is going to be held on the concluding day of the India-Latin American Countries (LAC) pharma business meet which is going to be conducted by Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) in Hyderabad from September 28 to 30. This is the second time that Pharmexcil is having a business meet with the industry members of the Latin American countries.

Dr Appaji said, “Every year we conduct an international business event within India where we invite people from different countries to interact with Indian companies for the promotion of the industry. This year we have invited 80 delegates from 12 Latin American Countries to India so that they can understand the Indian industry in a better way.”

About 80 delegates from major Latin American countries  like Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Trinidad & Tobago, Venezuela have been invited for this event.

This event will facilitate about 300 to 400 Indian companies to have one on one interactive sessions with their foreign counterparts.

He said, “Latin American countries provide a huge scope for Indian companies and thus we felt that it is imperative for us to tap this market again. There is a huge potential for the Indian pharma exporters to enhance their exports to LAC countries moreover, the response from the business meet that was conducted earlier acted as trigger.”

There will be an exhibition by the Indian pharma exporters, to showcase the individual company products during the business meet. Dr Appaji informed that on the last day of the event the Council will also have its seventh annual general meet, followed by export and patent awards function which will be attended by the minster of commerce.

This is the second edition of India-LAC pharma business meet and the first meeting was in 2007. Last year Pharmexcil had organised the business meet with the CAS countries which was preceded by a successful business meet with the African countries.