Foreign and European Affairs Minister Juraj Blanar (Smer-SD) on Thursday officially opened an honorary consulate in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), whose Honorary Consul is Vivek Lohia.
Slovakia currently has 171 honorary consulates around the world, including three in India - in Kolkata, Mumbai and Mangalore.
"We want to expand our business and investments to the whole of India, because the space here is huge, not only around the capital Delhi," said Blanar, adding that West Bengal, where Kolkata is located, is a gateway for investors to the whole of India. This is mainly due to the best-developed infrastructure in the country, which plays an important role in terms of logistics.
Honorary Consul Vivek Lohia stated that he expects significant growth in cooperation between Slovakia and India in the coming years. "As you know, we've had a very strong partnership with Tatravagonka for more than a decade, and, as we've announced, we're investing almost €500 million along with them. We're setting up a new manufacturing plant in India as well as in Europe," stated the JWL head.
According to Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SOPK) head, Peter Mihok lovakia should pay much more attention to the Indian market, which is important due to import opportunities from this country or in terms of attracting more Indian investment to Slovakia.
According to the SOPK chair, if Slovakia wants to penetrate the Indian market, it must come up with something interesting and find good cooperation. In this context, Mihok drew attention to, for example, a number of quality software companies in Slovakia whose services could be of interest to India. "I can see a serious opportunity here for Slovakia to position itself on the Indian market," he stressed.
Source: TASR
