Today, i.e 17TH November 2021, ASSOCHAM organized a curtain raiser event of the second edition of SMARTec India initiative 2021, which is a unique Digital platform that has reached out to the maximum number of target audience worldwide to showcase, reward, recognize and celebrate the world of smart technologies and how they putting a smart and simpler impact on our lives and businesses.
Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) is a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group based in New Delhi, India. The organization represents the interests of trade and commerce in India and acts as an interface between issues and initiatives. The goal of this organization is to promote both domestic and international trade and reduce trade barriers while fostering a conducive environment for the growth of trade and industry in India.
Katrin Kivi, Ambassador of Estonia to India, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh was also present at the event as one of the distinguished speakers at the event.
While addressing the audience Katrin said, “We are living in what is known as Asian Century where global outlooks have shifted towards rapidly growing economies in Asia, and fully synchronized with this trend. As for the last few years, Estonian exports in India have been growing considerably. Given their ambitions, this trend of India & Estonia, believe there is really room for a genuine partnership & true collaboration. In the past 3 years, more than 300 Estonian companies have been running businesses in India, and this year, despite the pandemic I got twice to go to Telangana and visit how vibrant the ecosystem is there. Today I’m not unveiling a secret when I am telling Estonia, my country is the most digitally advanced nation. I know my yellow Finnish Colleague ‘Jukka’ (Jukka Holappa – commercial counselor, Country Director India at Business, Finland) will tell you almost the same and I don’t see any conflict in this, because Estonia & Finland are together as, like brothers and sisters, we belong to the same language family. We are closer than Gujarat is to West Bengal or Kashmir is to Tamil Nadu, so that must be in our DNA.
And, India is a strategically important market, attractive for Estonian entrepreneurs, due to its large market of opportunities and growing base of consumers. Simultaneously, Estonia has embraced entrepreneurship, powered by technology, and is thriving to become a global hub of innovation. Our government programmes like – E-residencies, Startup Estonia, Digital Nomad Visa, Digital Test Bed Framework, inviting everyone around the world to come and build or try out their groundbreaking new ideas, products, prototypes, whole new digital services in a world-leading digital government setting and giving the groove and potential of both. India & Estonia, we believe in combining the strengths of the two nations in an international partnership, it will benefit both parties. We hope to foster a real collaboration that also advances Indian interests. Our strategic geographical presence, an attractive ecosystem of innovations, beneficial structure. By the way, according to OSD, Estonia has the number 1 structure system, stable government, and highly skilled personnel. These characteristics give Estonia a distinguished advantage and provide a solid platform for upscaling and expanding business explorations. Estonia has already home to many software development companies, payment processing businesses, blockchain development, and an inadvertent peer-to-peer leading platform. For example, after Reliance Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani became a resident of Estonia, the multi-national conglomerate also set up a research center for telecommunication company ‘JIO’, to better understand Digital Estonian Society and the benefits it can offer to. In fact, Estonia is the 132nd smallest country by landmass; it produces more startups and Unicorns per capita than any other nation in Europe. I repeat we are small in landmass, counting only 1.3 million people not a billion, but zero doesn’t count in the startup world. honor the values of self-reliance and make in India and strive to partner with India to start new courses in various conventional and unconventional sectors and I am more than confident that our globally renowned companies and competitive ecosystem of innovation can strive, rise to many synergies. India is a very important partner and market for Estonian IT companies and we look forward to using ASSOCHAM Smartec 2021 platform to create awareness about our expertise and also make our companies understand the various insights and requirements of India. I would like to wish ASSOCHAM an exciting and successful Smartec 2021.”
Katrin Kivi has been working in foreign affairs and intergovernmental relations who is skilled in European Integration, International Relations, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and Civil Society.
She studied Political Science and Government at the University of Bonn. She graduated from the University of Tartu, where she obtained her Master’s degree in German Language, Literature, and Philology. Along with that, she obtained her Master’s Degree in Applied Linguistics, Structural semantic, and German Language from the Leibniz Institute for the German Language in Mannheim, Germany.
Since 1993 she is working as the Head of Division for the Estonian Foreign Ministry, Earlier, she was Ambassador of Estonia to Denmark. Before this, she has played different roles on her professional front - Second Secretary in Political Department where she worked at the bilateral relations with Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Director in Political Department – Asia, Africa, Middle East, Latin America, Currently she is serving as Ambassador of Estonia to India, Deputy Head of Mission at the Estonian Embassy in France, was the Director of General Affairs Division at the European Union Department (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia), worked at the Estonian Embassy in Copenhagen, for 4 years she worked as Estonian Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe alongside being an Ambassador.
