JOIN USBavaria, the largest state in south-eastern Germany, has exhorted Indian entrepreneurs, specifically from Karnataka to invest in the state and tap the growing opportunities in the manufacturing sector.
Speaking at an interactive session on ‘Invest in Bavaria’ organised by the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) on Wednesday, State of Bavaria India Office Executive Director John Kottayil exhorted Karnataka entrepreneurs to tap the growing cluster approach in industry.
“Bavaria has developed a conducive cluster ecosystem for MSMEs in various verticals like automobile, electronics, information and communication technologies, pharma, aerospace and engineering. With the availability of necessary skillsets for the same, entrepreneurs can start their ventures in a cohesive atmosphere,” Kottayil said.
Bavaria, the fourth largest trading partner in the European Union, contributing 22 per cent of Euro Zone GDP at 487 billion euro, has signed 350 memoranda of understanding with India, has a presence of 1,200 companies in India and hosts 700 Indian companies.
“Bavaria’s competitive tax conditions, secure investment environment, technology prowess and power of innovation is really a matching proposition for companies in Bangalore, the citadel of innovation in India,” Kottayil said.
“Besides having the geographical advantage of being positioned at the centre of European Union cities with a population of 500 million, Bavaria had a prosperous GDP per capita of 38.429 euro in 2013, registering growth of 18 per cent annually, and competitive export volumes of 165 billion in 2012,” he said.
While 3 per cent of GDP is spend on research and development, Bavaria is witnessing a vibrant innovation ecosystem where 14,340 patent applications were received in 2013. “Bavaria’s visionary policies for industrial growth has made it an economically active and dynamic state with every second euro in Germany brought by the state,” said Kottayil.
In addition to the automotive industry, which contributes 27 per cent of Bavaria’s out put, electrical manufacturing, machinery, chemical and financial services are also major components of business activity.
Bavaria has nurtured 19 clusters spread across industries, and has a valley approach giving thrust to the Digital Bavaria project which started off in 2013 with an investment of 8 billion euro. With structured collaboration between science, research and business establishment based on the cluster approach, Bavaria’s achieved an industrial growth banking on the cooperation among large, small and medium enterprises.
Here Kottayil emphasises the importance of skills development, impacting industrial growth enormously. “Bavaria has an educational system where industry body and academia train students after their 12th class and provide skilled workforces for the manufacturing sector,” he said.