The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Export Promotion Services Matchmaker Program, in cooperation with the Offices of Telecommunications Technologies and Information Technologies, will lead a Telecom/ IT Matchmaker Trade Delegation to New Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai, India, February 26-March 2, 2001. The Matchmaker will target the IT sector. The focus of the delegation will be to match U.S. companies with qualified agents, distributors, representatives, licensees, and joint venture partners in telecom and the IT industry.

Throughout the 1990=s India experienced a dramatic increase in economic growth, averaging 6-7% a year, and the Government of India is projecting the same rate of growth for FY2000-1. Inflation is expected to range between 5-7% in 2000. Overall, the Indian economy continues to perform well and long-term prospects remain good due to the government=s implementation of a host of economic reforms and trade liberalization policies. In accordance with its WTO commitments, the Indian government announced in April of 1999 its Export-Import policy, which liberalized the import of more than 800 items. All IT products can be imported into India without any restrictions.

The IT sector currently represents the best prospect for U.S. goods and services in India as demonstrated by the recent remarkable growth of the domestic IT market - both software and hardware. The domestic software market aggregated revenues of USD 1.67 billion in 1999-2000, achieving a growth of 45% over the previous year. Some of the most vibrant segments have been ERP - growing at 25%, CAD/CAM growing at over 40%, and banking solutions growing at over 70%. The SOHO sector also witnessed a high growth of 70%. More than 375 private Internet Service Providers (ISPs)_ have licenses to offer Internet service in India, and 80 are operational. ISPs are now allowed to set up their own gateways, and the private sector can provide bandwidth. Recognizing the importance of IT, the Indian government has provided several incentives to this sector including 100% depreciation over 2 years on all IT products and zero custom duty on tall IT products by 2002.

Efforts to develop and privatize India’s telecom sector were boosted by the 1999 Telecommunications Policy. Key provisions aimed to strengthen the role of the telecom regulator separating its policy and licensing functions for its role as a service provider; transitioning service providers from license fees to revenue-sharing arrangements’; and opening the domestic long distance market to private competition. Rules for private sector competition in national long distance were issued on August 15,2000. The new government-owned service operator is the Department of Telecom Services (DST), which plans to become the third cellular operator throughout India expect in Delhi and Mumbai. There is growing support within India for opening the international telecom market to competition in 2002. India’s international traffic is growing at nearly 20% per year. India is the United State’s sixth largest market for outbound traffic; the U.S. is India’s second largest market. Recent growth in cellular telecommunications (two private companies compete in each of India’s 21 circles) has pushed subscribership to 2.1 million users, and many firms are expanding their networks. Tenders for provisions of basic telecom services in the remaining 15 areas in India may be issued by the end of the year. Private sector firms, as well as the power and railway sectors, are ready to construct domestic fiber optic networks. E-commerce is at its initial stages in India; a recent study predicted that E-Commerce revenues would reach $581 million this year and $2.1 billion in 2001.

Participants will spend two days in New Delhi, one day in Hyderabad, and two days in Mumbai (Bombay). At each stop, the Commercial Service will provide an extensive market briefing, highlighting opportunities in the telecom and IT industry and recent policy developments, schedule one-on-one appointments with the potential business partners for each participant, and arrange a reception to introduce the participants to key business and government officials in the IT industry.

Mission participants will arrive in New Delhi by Sunday, February 25; participants will have two days of business meetings (February 26-27) in New Delhi. The mission then will travel to Hyderabad the evening of February 27. Wednesday, February 28 the members will have meetings during the day and then fly to Mumbai that evening. The mission will conclude in Mumbai with two days of meetings on March 1-2.

The Matchmaker will be promoted through the following venues: Commercial Service Export Assistance Centers and Teams, the Federal Register, relevant trade publications, relevant trade associations, past Matchmaker and Commerce trade mission participants, various in-house and purchased industry lists, and on ITA=s Internet home page.

Recruitment will begin immediately and will close on Friday, January 12, 2001. The Matchmaker will target 15 companies. The participation fee for the event will be $2,400 per company.

• Relevance of the company's business line to mission goals;

• Potential for business in the selected markets;

• Timeliness of the company’s completed application and payment of the mission participation fee;

• Provision of adequate information on the company’s products and/or services and communication of the company=s primary objectives to facilitate appropriate matching with potential business partners;

• Certification that the company meets Departmental guidelines for participation including certification that the company=s products and/or services are manufactured or produced in the United States or if manufactured/produced outside of the United States, the product/service must be marketed under the name of a U.S. firm and have U.S. content of at least fifty-one percent of the value of the finished good or service.

Daniel W. Edwards

Office of Telecommunications Technologies, Room 4324

U.S. Department of Commerce

Washington, DC 20230

Tel: (202) 482-4331/Fax: (202) 482-5834

Email: Daniel_Edwards@ita.doc.gov

or

Yvonne Jackson

Matchmaker Trade Delegation Program

U.S. Department of Commerce, Room 2012

Washington, D.C. 20230

Tel: (202) 482-2675/Fax: (202) 482-0178

Email: yvonne.jackson@mail.doc.gov