Tel Aviv: With an eye on the global telecom market, captains of India's telecommunication industry have sought joint collaboration with Israeli firms and urged them to invest in the growing sector.

A 15-member telecommunication delegation, organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), is currently on a six-day visit to Israel seeking alliances and holding meetings with Israeli companies engaged in telecommunications.

Highlighting huge market potential for the joint venture, chairman of CII Telecom Council and managing director of Tata Industries Limited Kishor Chaukar said at the India-Israel telecom conference on July 7 that while Israel could contribute high technology, India could provide low-cost manpower and external sourcing.

Chaukar said following the government's policy of liberalisation, India had witnessed a steady growth rate and there was a very positive atmosphere for international companies to enter Indian market in view of huge reductions in tariff and removal of many barriers to enter the industry.

Indian Ambassador to Israel R S Jassal said Indo-Israeli trade had witnessed a phenomenal growth and shot up to $ 1.3 billion as co-operation between the two countries had increased and diversified into many areas.

Addressing the conference, director general of Israel Export Institute Yair Ofek said about 120 Israeli high-tech companies were already operating in India and that the two were not competitors but complementary. "We don't have competition, we have co-operation," Ofek said.

The delegation members included K V P Baskaran, chief executive officer (CEO) of Aircel Ltd, U C Shrivastava, director (R and D) Aishwarya Telecom Pvt Ltd, Sunil Abrol, registrar of C-Dot and others.

The subtle message of the conference was that India's telecommunications market has tremendous market potential for Israeli companies in the industry and that Indian and Israeli companies could form alliances and break into the European and American markets.

One of the highlight of the six-day mission is one-to-one meeting between representatives of Indian companies and their Israeli counterparts.

Executives from Indian companies Idea Cellular Limited, Net4India Ltd, and Spice Communications Ltd were scheduled to meet, among others, Israeli firms like Audiocodes, Comverse Technologies and Alvarion as well as venture capital funds such as vertex and JVP.

PTI