Friday, September 8 2006 12:42 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: India Inc, which will be present in impressive numbers, is expected to clinch some joint venture agreements when they travel to Brazil during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit next week.

"A number of agreements particularly in food processing and tourism are slated to be signed during the prime minister's visit from Sep 11 to 13," D.S. Rawat, secretary general of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), told sources.

Ahead of the prime minister's visit for the first IBSA (India-Brazil-South Africa) Summit, Pradeep Wig, chairman of the ASSOCHAM Committee on Agri and Food Processing, visited Brazil twice to finalise some of the possible joint ventures and collaboration proposals as also arrange one-to-one meetings.

Wig will be leading a 26-member ASSOCHAM delegation while the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) will have 23 leading industry representatives. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is to have a five-member team to explore joint opportunities.

The three industry lobbies will jointly be hosting the IBSA Business Summit in Brasilia Sep 12 in cooperation with the National Confederation of Industry (NCI) of Brazil and the Business Unit of South Africa.

According to a study done by ASSOCHAM, IBSA constitutes a whopping trade volume of $400 billion currently. However, the intra-IBSA trade has been approximately two percent - about $5 billion in 2002.

Through a focused approach on the Latin American countries, India has been able to raise its trade with Brazil from around $1.2 billion in 2001-02 to $1.47 billion in 2004-05, though the balance of trade is in Brazil's favour.

In 2000, Brazil began to export crude oil to India and to import fuel oil from Indian refineries, an exchange that has been widely responsible for the increase in bilateral trade. India has also emerged as a supplier of cheaper drugs for Brazil's national health programme, especially for HIV/AIDS control.

The export of services and advanced technology is also present in the bilateral exchanges. Brazilian companies are operating in the electronic and IT sectors in India, while Indian companies have also set up both joint venture and independent operations in Brazil.

A major agreement expected to be signed during the prime minister's visit is the IBSA agreement on merchant shipping and other maritime related matters.

Promotion of direct links among the three partner countries is expected to give a big boost to the flow of trade and investment between the three that share many common concerns in their fight for just global trade practices.

The prime minister's visit would also strive to take forward India's technical collaboration with Brazil on use of ethanol-blended petrol and diesel to study ways of importing the environment friendly fuel from there.

Brazil is the world's largest producer of sugar and ethanol.

Among the alternatives being studied is to have state-owned oil companies like Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), which already has an agreement with Brazil's national oil company Petrobras for cooperation in oil and gas exploration activities, source cheaper ethanol from the South American country.

This is not only expected to make ethanol- blended petrol or gasohol more cost effective but also help India expand its programme across the country and later increase the ethanol blend from five percent to 10 percent and thereby reduce more expensive crude oil imports.

India's plans to supply gasohol across the country have been held up due to high price of ethanol and uncertain supplies.