Doing business in India is about strategic partnerships, people and patience: NZITA

New Zealand India Trade Alliance (NZITA) recently held its first event for 2020 under the series NZ-India Dialogue (Connect, Enable and Advocate). The event was held at the exclusive Northern Club in Auckland. The evening had two top business leaders talking about their experience in doing business with India and how the NZ India trade collaboration can grow. The audience listened to some great stories and even greater examples of overcoming obstacles in order to succeed.

Alan Pollard, CEO of NZ Apples and Pears, spoke about why NZ apples industry is rated as #1 in the world. The main ingredients are orchard practices, higher yield per hectare and innovative new varieties. He spoke of the high tariffs (50 percent) for NZ apples entering India.

Indian apple Industry is restricted to the states of J & K, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and the terrain in some parts is quite daunting. Himachal Apples industry needs a rejuvenation and NZ can help in this regard with its best practices and innovative approach.

Alan painted a picture of how NZ apples industry was helping Himachal Pradesh since 1980. The relation has recently been rejuvenated and NZ apple industry is helping under a World bank funded project. Alan emphasized that the way forward is through:

• Trade as a strategic partnership; not a transaction

• Cooperation and collaboration

• Technical extension and knowledge/skill transfer

• Exchange programmes

• IP deployment

Carmen Vicelich, CEO of Valocity, spoke about how she jumped on the plane at the first bite by a potential partner/business in India, rather than skype. Valocity streamlines the mortgage and valuation process to enable improved regulatory compliance and more seamless customer experience.

She spoke of her experiences in India and how the company had to think outside the box to provide solutions to problems they had never encountered before. It was the innovative mindset of the company that solved the issues faced by the Banking/Finance/lending industry and digitized the process of validating the value of a property. Valocity has created an ecosystem where lenders, valuers, consumers and brokers have been connected on a cloud platform. This has led to reduction in the turnaround times and most of the process has become paperless.

Vicelich emphasized that for doing business in India:

• We need to work through people and build relationships

• Have the patience

•and the passion

Surinder Ogra, General Secretary, NZITA, spoke about NZ Trade flow trends in the past 50 years.

“Across industries, trade flows have been shifting away from US, UK and Europe (West) to the East. With the burgeoning middle-class, India occupies an important space in our future trade flows.”

“Whilst Goods exports to India have grown by a small percentage in the past 5 years, Services exports have increased from $408 million to $1.3 billion in the same period. This is a worldwide trend where physical goods going across the borders is reducing and Services sector is growing.”

Giri Gupta, Chairman of NZITA, and Don Brash, the organisation’s vice chairman jointly presented a plaque to Vicelich, congratulating Valocity on achieving great heights in six years culminating in winning the Global Fintech Start-up of the year at India Fintech awards in 2019.

- content courtesy New Zealand India Trade Alliance (NZITA)