PSU BEL gets its first office in in Vietnam; Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurates it

DEFENCE Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on June 13 inaugurated the first office of leading defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) in Hanoi, reflecting India’s deepening military cooperation with strategically- important Vietnam. On the second day of her visit there, Sitharaman also held extensive talks with her Vietnamese counterpart General Ngo Xuan Lich in Hanoi during which both sides explored ways to further deepen military...
cooperation. Sitharaman also called on President of Vietnam Tran Dai Quang and exchanged views on regional security situation as well as strengthening bilateral defence ties. At an event later, the defence minister handed over the symbolic key of the representative office of BEL to Chairman and Managing Director of the public sector undertaking Gowtama MV during a Vietnam-India defence industry business meeting.
BEL is India’s leading defence electronics company which is fast expanding its global presence, especially in South East Asian countries such as Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.
“We look forward to expand our footprint in defence production. This is the best time for us to come here with the technologies we have,” Sitharaman said in a keynote address at fourth Vietnam-India defence industry meeting.
She said it was important that the spirit of cooperation between India and Vietnam extends to private sector.
“I invite Indian private sector participants to come and engage here seriously,” she said.
The defence minister tweeted that she talked about India’s defence export potential and scope of India-Vietnam cooperation in fields of defence production and innovation.
Vietnam had expressed interest in acquiring Brahmos missiles from India and both sides have been engaged in talks over it.
Defence cooperation between India and Vietnam has been on an upswing, particularly in maritime sphere.
BEL, India’s leading defence electronics Navratna PSU, is fast expanding its global presence, putting its best foot forward to give a thrust to exports worldwide, especially South East Asian countries such as the Republic of Union of Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines. Spotting a niche market in Vietnam, BEL has now set up its first Representative Office at Vietnam for addressing export business opportunities and to provide unstinted product support and services to users in the region. The Representative Office will aim to promote BEL’s exports in areas such as Weapon Systems, Radar Systems, Naval Systems, Military Communication Systems, Electronic Warfare Systems, Combat Management System and Coastal Surveillance System. BEL has been laying great emphasis on Research and Development right from the early years. It has also been able to successfully partner as production agency with many DRDO labs. From a meagre turnover of Rs.2 lakhs in 1956-57, BEL has grown manifold to record a turnover of Rs.7,510 crores (provisional) in 2015-16.