To coincide with the Ninth Auto Expo, the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) organised a conference, Access to Global Markets through International Purchasing Offices, (IPO) at the ninth Auto Expo. Addressing the conference, Sanjay Labroo, president, ACMA, emphasised the growing interest of global manufacturers in the Indian automotive industry and the ongoing government initiatives to encourage the growth of the sector. "Indian companies have a lot of potential and the industry's future looks great with our current GDP share of five per cent of this sector, pegged to reach 10 per cent soon", he said.

In his inaugural address on boosting purchaser-developer relationship in the Indian automotive industry,  Surajit Mitra, joint secretary, ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises, said, "We want to break into new markets specially in the auto component sector with liberalised market policies and opening of special economic zones. I believe we can create an atmosphere for a two way process to engage everyone not only as purchaser but also as a developer."

Mitra also unveiled plans for the government's initiative for a National Institute of Forging along with the National Institute of Design, and highlighted forging as an important sector for the automotive industry.

"We look forward to create a demand for new technology and innovative designing to modernise our industry with such initiatives", he said. He also mentioned that the ongoing national automotive testing and R&D infrastructure project (NATRIP) would create a state of the art testing, validation and R&D infrastructure in the country, which would help in transferring technology from tier I to tier III cities.

The project, with an investment of $380 million, aims at setting up independent automotive centres at Manesar, Chennai, Pune, Indore and Rae Bareily.

Representing the BMW Group, Thomas Thym, head, international purchasing offices, stressed that it aimed at exploring the opportunities for procurement of production material (components) as well as IT and Engineering services.

"We would like to focus on exports from India to the BMW Group International Production Network and increasing the sourcing share from here", he said. Vijay Inamke, sourcing leader, IPO, Cummins Inc. cited the success of its IPO in India which had chalked an impressive growth rate from $1 million in 1999 to $193 million in 2007.

Other corporate conglomerates along with presentations of IPO representatives also attended the conference from Chysler LLC, Fiat India Automobiles, General Motors India Pvt. Ltd, Renault India Pvt, Ltd and Trelborg Automotive.

ACMA has been the Indian auto component, auto parts industry's spokesman since 1958.