Bilateral Investments:
Portfolio investment from Norway to India, during the last five years (with 2010 as the base index year) has grown exponentially from USD 2.85 billion in end-2009 to an impressive USD 11.01 billion by end-2016. While the investment in the Central Government sector amounts to USD 10.056 billion in 2015, this investment also includes approximately USD 9.24 billion by NBIM of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) investment. Investments by GPFG in India have been increased from NOK 81.86 billion (US$9.24 billion in 2015 to approximately NOK 95.78 billion (US$ 11.71 billion) in 275 investments in Equity and 36 investments in Fixed Income Bonds by the end of 2017. Overall this positive change represents a 286% growth during the last eight years. We are hopeful that some of this investment may be dovetailed towards GOI’s green projects as well.
Over 105 Norwegian companies are engaged in India either through joint ventures with Indian partners or through wholly owned subsidiaries in areas such as ship building, petroleum related services, marine/sub-sea drilling equipment, hydropower, clean energy, and IT services. ONGC and Reliance Industries have tie ups with Norwegian companies in the petroleum and energy sector. There has also been a trend of Norwegian IT companies to either offshore their business to India or acquire shares in Indian companies. Telenor, Norway’s largest telecom company, which owned Telenor India, invested USD1200 million in India but later decided to leave the Indian telecom market selling its business to Bharti Airtel.
However, there has been significant increase of establishment of Norwegian companies in India from 68 in 2013 to 107 in 2018, which is an increase of 39 business establishments (57% growth). This remarkable increase within four years was possible due to ease of doing business in India.
Joint Ventures:
Over 40 Norwegian enterprises have been attracted to establish joint ventures in India for a variety of motives. Some wish to leverage lower cost of manufacturing in India to supply to markets in Norway or India or in third countries. Some others wish to split the cost of manufacturing with more labour-intensive segments being undertaken in India. Yet others wish to take advantage of India's core competence in low-cost research and development and designing capabilities. Some others are motivated by cost reduction possibilities offered by IT out-sourcing to India. Yet another set of joint ventures are aimed at India's consumer market, hydroelectric projects, Some such joint ventures also span areas such as hydro-electricity, IT, plastics & deep offshore are estimated to be 40. Indian Joint Ventures in Norway are mostly in information technology and Food sector. Establishment of some other JVs in off-shore and trading are on cards.
Business Links:
Business Events:
Important events held in Norway recently:
- The Embassy of India in collaboration of Carpet Export Promotion Council organized an Expo and BSM of Indian Handmade Carpets on 12-13 November, 2018 in which nine Indian companies participated at the Expo and BSM. It was the first Expo and BSM of its kind in Norway.
- The Embassy of India in cooperation with Norway-India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NICCI) organized a Business Seminar “Economic and Cultural aspects in cross-border cooperation” on 14th June, 2018 coinciding with the Annual Meeting of NICCI.
- The Embassy of India in partnership with Norway-India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NICCI) and DNB organized a Seminar “Ocean Industries Seminar – Norway and India Teaming Up for Blue Growth” at DNB Solheimsviken, Bergen on 15th March, 2018.
- The Embassy of India in collaboration with the Stavanger Chamber of Commerce organized a Business Seminar “Trade and Investment – a two way opportunity” in Stavanger on 13th March, 2018.
- The Embassy of India in collaboration with Norway-India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NICCI) organized a Seminar on Smart Cities on 27 September, 2017 in Oslo.
- The Embassy of India in collaboration with Norway-India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NICCI) organized a Seminar on Investment and Tourism on 15 June, 2017 in Oslo.
Important visits took place in Norway recently:
- A delegation led by Shri Satish Agnihotri, Chairman & Managing Director, Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) visited Norway from 26th to 31st August, 2017 to understand the Norwegian tunnelling system and also to explore cooperation for proposed tunnels in India.
- A 5-member delegation led by Shri Yudhvir Singh Malik, Secretary, Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways, Government of India and the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDC), India visited Norway from 28th to 30th October, 2018 on a study tour in connection with the tunnelling technology.
