Official Visit of Consul General to Ningbo (Zhejiang)

22 – 23 March, 2017

Consul General Prakash Gupta paid an official visit to Ningbo (Zhejiang Province) from March 22- 23, 2017 and interacted with Mr. Qiu Dongyao, Acting Mayor of NingboMunicipal People’s Government to discuss ways and means to further deepen economic and cultural cooperation between India and Ningbo.

2. During the meeting with Acting Mayor Qiu, Consul General shared details of investment opportunities available to Ningbo companies in India, as part of the Make in India initiative, and requested Ningbo city leadership to lead an investors’ delegation to visit India in the second half of 2017. A proposal to organize an India Investment Forum along with an India Culture Week in November 2017 was also submitted to Ningbo city leadership for their consideration.

3. Consul General also visited the Menovo Pharmaceutical Group in Ningbo, which is one of China’s leading manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and API’s, and is presently exploring options for a joint venture project with an Indian company. Consul General also met with senior leadership of the RONGAN Real Estate Group and encouraged them to look at participating in upcoming real estate and infrastructure construction projects in India. Separately, Consul General also paid a visit to the Shenlong auto components company, which has an existing JV with an Indian company (PCL) - based out of Ningbo - to produce auto components.

4. Consul General also held an interaction with members of the Indian Association Ningbo at one of the leading Indian restaurants and heard out their suggestions on making consular services more streamlined. In addition, Consul General also visited the Ashoka Temple in Ningbo, which has more than 1600 years of documented history, and hosts one of the precious relics of Lord Buddha.

5. In the afternoon of 23^rd March, Consul General also paid a visit to Ningbo University and met with its President. It may be noted that more than 350 Indian students are pursuing medical studies at the Ningbo University. During the visit, Consul General interacted with a group of the Indian medical students and invited them for an interaction with Medical Council of India representatives at the Consulate premises in Shanghai in the second week of April 2017.

6. Ningbo University, also organized an address for nearly 200 students of Ningbo University, in honour of Consul General (as part of their Foreign Dignitaries Lecture Series), during which various facets of Indian economy, art, culture and democracy were shared with Ningbo University students. During the nearly hour long Q&A session, Consul General answered queries of students ranging from gender issues, caste system, democracy to Indian economy.

7. It may be noted that Ningbo is one of the Eastern China’s leading industrial and economic hub with a major port facility and ranks as the 2^nd leading economic center in Zhejiang Province (only after Hangzhou).

Ningbo (Zhejiang)

23 March 2017