On 12 October 2016, All India Federation of Master Printers (AIFMP) signed agreements with Shanghai-based Reed Exhibitions for conducting a B2B meeting with the international printers and machinery manufactures of China. The main focus of the meeting will be to convince the Chinese manufacturers of corrugated machinery and equipment to start manufacturing in India. The threeday meeting, from 11 to 14 April 2017, will be sponsored by Reed Exhibition. In addition, the delegates will get an opportunity to visit production plants around Shanghai.
Speaking on the occasion, Kamal Chopra, president of AIFMP said, “We want to encourage our printers to diversify to packaging printing, which is growing at a rapid pace. This kind of a B2B meeting can be a great platform for Indian printers to understand and imbibe the Chinese system of working to produce and stand up competitively in the global market. Nevertheless, with the largest number of young people and lowest dependency ratio in the world, India has the biggest opportunity to make a mark globally.”
Additionally, to elevate the standard of the Indian-made equipment and machinery, AIFMP will invite manufacturing companies from China to collaborate and share their technical expertise with India partners and thus ‘Make in India’. Chopra said, “With the availability of such indigenous machines, the printer will be able to save huge money being spent on capital goods now.”
At the press conference, Chopra also shared AIFMP’s plans and strategies for the year 2016–17. One of the prime focus of AIFMP in the year 2016–17 will be to build a networking platform for printers as well as allied association across the globe. Another concern that will be addressed by the association will be to ensure that the printing industry gets its due recognition not only from the government but also within society. Chopra said, “Our printers don’t take pride in what they are doing and shy away from introducing themselves as a printer. At AIFMP, we are planning to launch a campaign to motivate the printers to be proud of their profession.”
“We want to encourage our printers to diversify to packaging printing, which is growing at a rapid pace. This kind of a B2B meeting can be a great platform for Indian printers to understand and imbibe the Chinese system of working to produce and stand up competitively in the global market. Nevertheless, with the largest number of young people and lowest dependency ratio in the world, India has the biggest opportunity to make a mark globally.”
As per AIFMP’s plans and strategy, this year the annual knowledge seminar, Romancing Print, will be aimed at reaching out to ground-level printers and will comprise a series of four seminars instead of one. These seminars will be organized in small cities—one each in North, South, West and East. The four regional vice presidents will be responsible for organizing the events on different days of February and March 2016.
Chopra also announced the dates for some key events in 2017. The next Pamex event will be held in Mumbai from 18 to 21 December 2017. “We also organize National Awards for Excellence in Printing, which are considered to be the ‘Oscars’ of the printing industry. Now efforts are being made to give international flavour to these awards. On the previous occasion guest entries were invited from Europe and Japan. This time we expect guest entries from China, Nepal, Pakistan and some more countries as well,” concluded Chopra.
