EEPC India organised the 2nd edition of CIS Ambassadors' Round Table Forum at New Delhi on 13th August 2013. The forum was attended by Ambassadors' and senior diplomats from the embassies of CIS countries located in New Delhi, senior officers from Ministry of Commerce & Industry and several top industrialists. The forum discussed the trade and investment opportunities in CIS region for Indian companies. On this occasion, EEPC India also released its publication titled "Doing Business in CIS". The event also saw a presentation on India Engineering Sourcing Show 2014.

Addressing the forum, Shri Ravi Kapoor, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce, said that the Commerce Ministry views CIS, ASEAN, African and Latin American countries as the four fastest growing regions of the world.

Requesting the Ambassadors of CIS countries to encourage their businessman to participate in the India Engineering Sourcing Show in Mumbai in January, Shri Capoor said that the problems relating to visa need to be sorted out.

EEPC India Chairman, Mr Aman Chadha said that getting a business visa to Russia and other CIS countries would be a lot easier now with the Indian government working an arrangement with its CIS counterparts wherein recommendation from one of the apex chambers would speed up the grant of visa.

The Ambassadors of Russian Federation, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Ukraine, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan made presentations to support drive of council to gain our share of engineering exports to the their countries.

Incidentally Mr Anand Sharma, Hon'ble Minister for Commerce & Industry, has invited Ukrainian Minister of Economic Development & Trade, Mr Ihor Prasolov for IESS 2014, which was also discussed during the forum.

In 2012-13, trade between India and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) stood at USD 11.5 billion. However, it is possible to enhance the trade between India and CIS countries to USD 30 billion by 2020. The first step in this direction would be reaching the target of USD 20 billion by 2015.