Chinese firms eye big potential in India(2)

At the second BRICS summit, in New Delhi, India, China encouraged imports from India to balance the trade deficit. And then-Chinese president Hu Jintao told Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that "it is China's unswerving policy to develop Sino-Indian friendship, deepen strategic cooperation and seek common development."

Chinese business leaders in India are hoping that Premier Li Keqiang's recent visit to the country will further boost the Sino-Indian relationship and create a friendlier business environment for Chinese companies, especially in visa applications.

Madhav Nalapat, an Indian scholar on geopolitics who influences Indian policies on the highest levels, feels that China's new leadership is committed to improving relations with India.

In an e-mail to China Daily, Nalapat said that the two countries will strive to settle border issues, and the outlook is therefore optimistic.

"My view is that India-China commercial relations will top $300 billion annually before five years," he said.

Li Jian, secretary-general of the New Delhi-based Chindia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which represents over 110 Chinese companies in India, said that not all Chinese companies are now doing very well in India at the moment, but many of them have decided to hold on because of India's huge growth potential.

"They have encountered a lot of problems, but most of them won't go back home easily because they believe things will get a lot better along with Indian development," Li said.

The Chinese and Indian economies are highly complementary, he added, but at the moment, the two countries' relationship problems are hindering economic cooperation.

SUCG's Lu said that his company is barely making any money in India, but has chosen to stay here because of the market's alluring potential. Chinese companies such as SUCG have huge potential for development in India as long as China and India improve their relations.

"We are hanging in there and hoping for the best. We have really high hopes for the premier's visit this time," Lu said.

Longjian Road and Bridge Ltd Co is another Chinese company that is hanging on in India. The Shanghai-listed company is the only Chinese road construction company left in India.

Longjian's fellow competitors, including Sinohydro, China Gezhouba (Group) Corp and China National Coal Group Corp, all pulled out of India within a few years.

Longjian is currently building part of the Pink City Expressway, which will link the economic boomtown of Gurgaon with resource-rich Jaipur. The patch that Longjian is contracted for is 34 km long. This is the fourth year and Longjian is still building the project that could have been finished in China in two years.

The best-case scenario is for construction to be finished by year-end, but there is no assurance. In 2009, all of Longjian's Chinese employees except for Liu were sent back to China by Indian immigration authorities. The incident delayed Longjian's construction by a year. Liu later managed to get his workers back thanks to his personal relations with Indian government officials, but he said he is not sure if he has the energy to deal with another such crackdown.

Liu said he has to deal with 14 different local government agencies, each having the power to single-handedly halt Longjian's construction. The agencies, he said, are watching Chinese companies with increased attention.

Overall, the Chinese companies haven't been scared away, with newcomers constantly coming in. Chindia Chamber's Li said that Internet and food-processing companies are the latest Chinese companies that have set foot in India.

One such Chinese Internet company is UC Web, which mainly develops Internet browsers for smartphones. It launched its India office in 2011, and two years later it has 40 million Indian users and a 25 percent market share in the local browser market.

In a glamorous office building in Gurgaon, UC Web's general manager in India, Ye Zhicong, envisages the company's bright future in India.

"India's smartphone market is about two years behind China, and our experience in China is perfectly applicable here in India," Ye said.

UC Web now has three executives who were sent in from China plus eight local Indian employees in a small office about 100 square meters. But it's just a start. Ye expects UC Web to soon top the local market and will be in much a bigger office as it brings in more employees.

Liu Jiaoyue is one of the three UC Web executives in India in charge of local business development. A 27-year-old from Heilongjiang province, Liu said she had really taken a shine to India.

She now can speak some Hindi and made yoga her weekly routine, which she says really "bring peace to my mind". She also describes herself as a Buddhist and is more familiar with Indian history than the average Indian. She said she likes India because there are many similarities between Chinese and Indian culture.

"I don't see why two cultures as similar as China and India can't patch things up and become good friends," Liu said.