17 US companies to visit Chennai

MADURAI: Representatives of 17 US companies will be visiting Chennai in February to discuss the opportunities to work jointly in infrastructure projects in India, James Golsen, principal commercial officer, US Consulate, Chennai, said here on Wednesday. Speaking on Indo-US bilateral trade relations at a seminar conducted by the School of Business Studies, Madurai Kamaraj University, here, he said, “India is the 12th largest trading partner of the US. India could be in top 10 countries in ten years from now.” he said.“Large US companies turned to India to solve the Y2K problem in computer systems on the eve of 2000,” he pointed out. From then on, there was no turning back, he said. Ford Motors company, heavy duty machines company Caterpillar, computer manufacturer DELL and several other US companies now have manufacturing bases here, he said. The trade volume between the two countries stood at $2,100 crore, he said. Since large corporations do business with each other, efforts are on to facilitate interaction between small and medium enterprises from both countries, James Golsen said.