U.S. COMMERCE SECRETARY GARY LOCKE BRINGS 24 U.S. COMPANIES ON HIGH-TECHNOLOGY TRADE MISSION TO INDIA
On the first stop, Locke highlights mutually beneficial trade with a visit to a local small business that uses technology developed by a U.S. company
*Photo Included*
NEW DELHI — U.S. Commerce Secretary Locke kicked off a high-technology trade mission today in New Delhi to promote exports of leading U.S. technologies and services related to civil nuclear energy, civil aviation, defense and homeland security, and information and communications technology. The mission will continue through February 11, and also make stops in Bangalore and Mumbai.
Highlighting the kind of mutually beneficial trade that President Obama talked about during his visit in November, Locke visited a neighborhood grocery store in New Delhi that is using technology developed by a U.S. company to market its products, manage its customers and organize its business operations. Intuit, based in Mountain View, Calif., created “GoConnect,” a new innovative mobile and web-based marketing service that is helping Indian micro and small businesses grow and improve the way they communicate with their customers. Intuit’s new application was first announced during the President Obama’s visit to India. See a photo from Secretary Locke’s visit to the neighborhood grocery store today in New Delhi here.
“Intuit’s GoConnect technology is a prime example of the kind of mutually beneficial trade that creates jobs in both countries, creating opportunities from the Intuit offices in Northern California to a neighborhood grocery store in the streets of New Delhi,” said Secretary Locke. “We look forward to finding more commercial opportunities like these during this trade mission.”
GoConnect was developed in both India and the U.S. The data is hosted in Intuit’s data center in Quincy, Washington.
Locke accompanied President Obama to India in November, where they witnessed more than $10 billion in business deals between U.S. companies and Indian private sector and government entities, supporting 50,000 American jobs.
The delegation, which also includes senior officials from the Export-Import Bank (EX-IM) and the U.S. Trade Development Agency (USTDA), will also make stops in Bangalore and Mumbai, where Locke will highlight export opportunities and efforts to break down tariff and non-tariff barriers for U.S. businesses in the advanced industrial sector — civil-nuclear trade, defense and security, civil aviation, and information and communication technologies.
While in New Delhi, Locke will be delivering the keynote address at the Confederation of Indian Industry and holding a series of bilateral meetings with Indian government officials, before heading to Bangalore for the second stop of his trip.
The pace of trade between the United States and India is accelerating. Between 2002 and 2009, U.S. goods exports to India quadrupled, growing from $4.1 billion to more than $16.4 billion. Through the first eleven months of 2010, U.S. merchandise exports to India totaled $17.6 billion, up 17 percent from the same period in 2009. With economic growth estimates at about 9.7 percent in 2010, India is a key market for the Obama Administration’s National Export Initiative, which aims to double U.S. exports in five years.
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