There have been days when the city would receive overseas delegations or teams of business visitors from other States every month. Industrial associations and trade promotion bodies would organise expos, buyer-seller meets, and special meetings with industrialists here frequently.
However, there seems to be a drop in such activities in the last few months. While a section of industry representatives say there is a drop in such delegations coming here, some others say the visits continue.
Demands and expectations of such delegations from the manufacturing sector here are also changing, says D. Nandakumar, president of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Coimbatore. For instance, a Japanese delegation was in the city recently. They wanted industries to meet the quality standards of Japan but at a much lower cost. There are many overseas visitors who have similar expectations. And, there are instances when this might not be possible as industries here need to shell out more for raw materials and power, he says.
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However, T. Rajkumar, chairman of Southern India Mills’ Association, says that the response to Texfair this year was high and there were several teams from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and different parts of Tamil Nadu too.
When the number of business meets drop, it impacts not only the industries but also related sectors such as logistics and hospitality.
Demand is expected to pick up across sectors in the next few weeks and thus give a fillip to related sectors too, say industry sources.
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(Reporting by M. Soundariya Preetha)