“We have identified five areas of verticals of cooperation – it’s called SPEED – Supply chain, Pharmaceutical, Education, Energy, and Digital.” Dr.  Manoj Mohapatra is India’s Ambassador to Guatemala, one of the better-known countries in Central America.

The Indian Panorama editor Prof. Indrajit Saluja was in Guatemala at Ambassador Mohapatra’s invitation to attend a Trade Exhibition of Indian Handicrafts and participate in the ongoing Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav related other events from September 22 to September 25, 2022,  at various locations in Guatemala. However, the majority of the events took place in Guatemala City. Ambassador Mohapatra graciously agreed to sit with Prof. Saluja for an interview. Here are some excerpts from the long interview the Ambassador gave to The Indian Panorama in his office at the Indian Embassy in Guatemala City on September 22, 2022.

 TIP:How would you characterize the relationship between India and Guatemala?

 Amb.Year 2022 marks two milestones in our historical relationship. First one – We are celebrating 75 years of India’s independence ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ here in Guatemala who last year celebrated 200 years of its independence. The other one is, we are also celebrating 50 years of establishment of diplomatic relationship between India and Guatemala. In the last fifty years we have built a solid foundation. We have identified certain areas where we would be working together with Guatemala. In this regard we have identified five areas of verticals of cooperation – it’s called SPEED – Supply chain, Pharmaceutical, Education, Energy, and Digital. Although the geographical distance between India and Guatemala is quite far, it takes about 70 days to reach a container from India to Guatemala, to overcome those challenges we are working together. We have already made some progress in these five verticals.

TIP: Can you please tell us about the events you have lined up to celebrate ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ and the initiatives promoting relationship and businesses between India and Guatemala?

 Amb.We have an excellent relationship with Guatemala in the political sphere. What is important is that the foundation that we have laid has been very fruitful for strengthening the economic and commercial relationship between two countries. Guatemala has always been supportive of India. What is more important is the geographical proximity of Guatemala with Northern and Latin American countries- it’s like a window between the two. It only takes three days to reach America from Guatemala by ship. Guatemala has signed a free trade agreement with the USA. That has been very much helpful for them. If our companies would be coming here to manufacture certain items which would be marketed in the USA – that would be very much helpful. One of the sectors is textile. We have seen our companies here bring semi-finished products from India. The areas that we have identified – one of them is the supply chain. About 20 Indian companies have shown interest to come here for a warehouse project in Guatemala City. We are working on the project to overcome the geographical distance between India and Guatemala. Our exports are very much welcome here. We have seen a 40% export growth increase in 2022 compared to 2021. We have exported more than one billion dollars worth of Indian goods.

India has become the pharmaceutical hub of the world. During the pandemic, India was the first country to supply 200,000 doses of Covid 19 vaccine to Guatemala. Indian pharma companies are marketing generic medicines here. In fact, two companies have opened a chain of pharmaceuticals here in Guatemala. They are also doing very well in the region. As we speak today, 3 to 4 delegations from Guatemala are currently attending IFEX in India. We see the willingness to buy generic medicines from India and we have seen the commitment that they would be buying 1 billion dollars worth of medicine from India.

Now let’s speak about the energy sector. Ten days back we organized the first technical level meeting between Indian companies ONGC, Indian Oil, Reliance and others with their counterparts in Guatemala. Guatemala is sitting on a huge pile of gas that will cater to India’s requirements for more than 20 to 25 years. We are going to host a second technical level meeting soon which will make clear which Indian companies will come here to deal with the gas. The renewable energy companies are also keen to come to Guatemala because it’s very cost effective here. We are encouraging Guatemala and Honduras to join the international solar alliance. We are working with all three governments for the solar energy project. We are also working on wind energy.

Now comes education. I am happy to announce that we have established a college called ‘Barefoot College.’ It’s located in Jaipur. We have selected 20 girls who did not have access to electricity. We have given them the training of solar energy and rather than taking the ladies to India, we have opened a branch here to train them. And for doing so, we did not take any support from the Govt of India or Govt of Guatemala. We did this through corporate initiative. Our target is to train about 240 girls here. The trained girls would themselves install the solar panels in their house.

In the education sector, Indian companies have recruited about 10,000 Guatemalans directly. We are making a bridge between Indian companies and the universities and anybody who is passing out of the universities, is recruited by the Indian companies. We have hosted job fairs organized by Indian company. The fifth vertical is digital. Indian IT companies have hired 9 to 10 thousand people here.

Some Indian companies will come here for infrastructure development like the airport project. We have already started discussions.

TIP: How about cooperation in the field of education? Are there any plans for opening an IIT in Guatemala

Amb.The Govt of India has announced that IITs would go abroad. We have submitted a proposal to Guatemala Govt that we would be very happy to established an IIT here. This will take some time because it’s a lengthy process. We are also working on some universities of both countries to make partners. We are organizing video conferences as well. It’s a Spanish speaking region so we are trying to overcome that challenge associated with the language.

 TIP: Any plans for cooperation in providing medical education in Guatemala?

Amb.We are encouraging some of our hospitals and startups to come here to improve health care sector. Let’s see what best we can do. We got very good response from Govt of Guatemala and El Salvador in this regard.

TIP: How about  geo-economic alliance in this part of the world?

Amb.Guatemala and India have a strong foundation. Guatemala is having advantage of coming Indian companies here because of the skilled and cheap workforce. Our companies are trying to become multinational and looking for more markets. Central American countries play a major role in this because of their proximity to Northern and Latin American countries. This is going to be a win-win situation for both.

TIP: What is the general  view of people of Guatemala about Indians?

Amb.That is the challenge we have as of now. People to people contact remains difficult because of the geographical distance. Another problem is that we don’t speak the Spanish language. We have marked certain sectors to make people to people contact. One of them is getting Bollywood here. We are screening Bollywood movies in Spanish in various places. We are also hosting fashion shows, Indian handicrafts, textiles, automobiles etc. We would also like to see producers making shootings of Bollywood movies here because this country is full of natural beauties including volcanoes. We have invited some producers already to come here and see. We will also send about 200 people from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador to India every year to different sectors who will become natural ambassadors when they return.