business
I N T E R V I E W
Indo-American Chamber Of Commerce Of Greater Houston
What is the mission of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce and when was it established ?
In 1999 , before India was fashionable as an inbound or outbound destination , a group of Indian business men got together with the realization that India would have a significant role to play in the global marketplace . When I say business men , I ’ m referring to people like me and Dr . Durga Agrawal , President and CEO of Piping Technology and Products along with 14 others . We all felt that there was a lot of potential between Houston and India . So , we all got together and approached the then Indian Consul General , Anupam Ray , and with him we discussed whether the consulate could help us connect with the business community in India for bilateral trade opportunities . He was very , very helpful and we consider him the father of the chamber . That led us to creating this chamber in 1999 ; realizing very soon that only a small percentage of the population of Houston was interested in trade with India . There was a lot of need to educate our own business people on how to , for example , get an SBA guaranteed loan or how to certify as a woman-owned or minority-owned business ; we started catering to different needs of the business community as their needs kept emerging . From just being an organization to facilitate trade between Houston and India , we started focusing on the local needs of the local business community and realizing that a lot of people wanted to do business with the Indians in Houston . A lot of people in the Indo-American community wanted to do business with large corporations . In result , we started creating relationships with resource partners and then we started creating relationships with other chambers of commerce , whether it ’ s the Katy Chamber of Commerce or the Asian Chamber of Commerce or the Greater Houston Partnership or chambers of commerce in India . We as a chamber of commerce strive to create economic development in our region . We have built relationships over the last 18 years with all the area economic development agencies because our primary goal is to create local jobs .
Can you give us an overview of the outreach and networking events the chamber hosts ? We bring in top speakers !
by Sara Tavassoli iF Magazine | www . iFMagazine . net 33