The Detroit Regional Economic Partnership, part of the Detroit Regional Chamber, recently teamed up with Oakland County to visit India in order to attract new businesses to Southeast Michigan.
Headed by Partnership Executive Director John Carroll, the ten-person delegation included representatives from the Detroit Regional Economic Partnership, Oakland County, Global Services Resources, LLC, Acro Service Corp. and Stonebridge Business Partners, a company that now has offices in two cities in India, Pune and Delhi, following the 2006 trip.
The late March/early April visit was an aimed at building build on the success of the Partnership's 2006 mission to India. The group spoke with newspapers, held cocktail parties, hosted seminars and spoke to companies and people on a one-on-one basis through four cities.
Carroll said that having a high Indian population in Detroit was an advantage, and that many in India became interested in what they were doing and offered their assistance with the trip.
"We aimed to improve upon Detroit’s image, " said Carroll, who added the company has what he calls "28 good leads," which is what he refers to as businesses interested, as well as two "prospects, " which he calls companies that could potentially be moving offices to the East Michigan area within the next year or so. Although he could not give specifics, he did mention that one company was looking to bring around thirty new engineering jobs to the area.
"The most important part of all of this is the end result, the ultimate deals, " said Carroll, who added the Partnership, which has created nearly 8,000 new jobs in the Metro Detroit area in the last decade, will continue talks with the Indian market, as well as local groups such as the Indo American Chamber of Commerce, in the hopes of securing these deals.
Source: John Carroll, The Detroit Regional Economic Partnership
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