Mr. Lu Changan, Vice - Chairman and General Secretary, Printing and Printing
Equipment Industries Association of China (PIEC)
Mr. Govind Bhargava, President, All India Federation of Master Printers (AIFMP)
Mr. K S Khurana, President, Indian Printing, Packaging and Allied Machinery Manufacturers’ Association (IPAMA)
Mr. Kamal Chopra, Secretary General, North India Printers’ Association (NIPA)
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure to join you all today at the eighth Beijing International Printing Technology Exhibition - China Print. The Indian participation in China Print is supported by the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India. We have around 400 delegates that have come from India especially for this Event. The delegation is led by the North India Printers’ Association (NIPA) and supported by All India Federation of Master Printers (AIFMP), leading body of Indian printing industry and Indian Printing, Packaging and Allied Machinery Manufacturers’ Association (IPAMA), an apex body of machinery manufactures in India. I welcome everybody present. I would also like to thank China Print Show Company and Printing and Printing Equipment Industries Association of China (PIEC) for supporting ‘India Day celebrations.’ I am confident that this event will go a long way in enhancing India-China cooperation in this sector.

Economic cooperation between India and China in the last decade has been a remarkable story.  From very modest beginnings, China has become India’s largest trade partner and India is China’s seventh largest export destination.  Trade last year was USD 67 billion and is steadily growing.  The relations are now maturing, moving from trade to investments.  We need to seek more avenues for increasing bilateral commercial engagement and printing sector can be targeted as one of the potential sectors.

Printing and Print- Packaging industry in India is growing at a rapid pace. Growth of the Printing coupled with Packaging Printing industry in India since 1989 has been estimated to be over 14%. India is expected to become the sixth largest market in the world by 2015, according to a study by ICD Research. Indian printing and packaging industry has been growing by more than 73% year on year since the last 6-7 years. Growing economic development and urbanisation, rising per capita income, expanding investments in retail sector and e-commerce and steady increase in the levels of readership in India have been contributing to this growth. The recent liberalisation in retail FDI norms in India are bound to further provide an impetus to the growth. According to a study by Heidelberg India, printing and packaging industry in India is expected to be worth US$ 26 billion by 2015. The growth is expected to continue its momentum on account of rising economic standards and improvement in global economic situation. While everyone thinks printing is adding ink on paper, the scenario is changing rapidly with printing becoming an integral part of manufacturing with the use of cutting edge ink-jet technology with modern material science.

The objective of India day celebrations today is to further strengthen cooperation between Indian and Chinese companies in this sector by organizing B2B meeting between Chinese machinery manufacturers and suppliers of various international brands and Indian printers to exchange expertise and seek more avenues of business cooperation. There is a two-way flow between the two countries in this sector, marked by good synergy and potential for further cooperation, including mutual investments.

It is my earnest wish that today’s event enhances India-China trade and investment in printing and allied sectors and help in technological collaboration to bring about greater value add in Indian printing industry. The Embassy will extend all possible support to Indian and Chinese companies in this endeavor. I wish you all a very productive participation and stay in Beijing.