Back from India with deals in hand, O’Malley plans Brazil trip next year

Listen to this article
Gov. Martin O'Malley and Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker brief reporters on India trip.

Gov. Martin O'Malley and Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker brief reporters on India trip.

Brazil is the next stop on Maryland’s international trade agenda, Gov. Martin O’Malley told reporters Monday, with Africa possibly to follow. But no definite plans have been made.

O’Malley was debriefing reporters on his six-day trade mission to India.

The governor announced two more Indian investments in Maryland. Jasco Nutri Foods, an organic food distributor, is looking to invest $10 million in Maryland. Jubilant Life Sciences is planning to spend $20 million to expand its existing plant and warehouse in Salisbury that now employs 240 people.

Those two deals brought the total deliverables from the India trip to $60 million.

Otherwise, there was a little new about the trade mission to Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi that had not already been announced in press releases and a Skype briefing for Annapolis reporters during the trip. The final press release summarized the trip.

“We’re all familiar with the political liabilities” of overseas travel, and the kind of articles that get written about problems that demand attention at home, O’Malley said. So in the past, “I was reluctant to ask for county executives to travel with us,” but this time he had Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett and Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker, who came with a large delegation of businesses from Prince George’s.

The most recent to return home was Venkat Subramanian of Angarai in Greenbelt who got back at 1 a.m. Monday morning. His consulting company signed the first agreement on the trip, and he plans on returning frequently for more business deals to his native Chennai in south India.

University of Maryland officials also signed a number of agreements with Indian universities. College Park President Wallace Loh reported on the trip to the campus a week ago.

There were a number of videos posted about the trip.

O’Malley and other members of the delegation also made their way into India’s large English language media. This included the governor’s interview with the India Business Network, in which he was asked about Maryland’s interest in Bollywood, India’s film capital in Mumbai.

“We’re very much aware of Bollywood,” O’Malley said, and he and his family watched the Academy-Award-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire “one more time” before the trip.

“It would be outstanding if a Bollywood film wanted to film in Maryland,” O’Malley said.

In a story in the Economic Times of India, O’Malley said the future of India and the United States are tied together.

Here’s a story about the trip that ran in IndiaWest, a California-based news operation.

Here is the Nov. 30 MarylandReporter.com story about the trade mission, the largest in Maryland’s history with more than 100 people, most of them paying their own way. There was also a one-day stop in Qatar.

Economic Development Secretary Christian Johansson noted that Brazil is one of the nations with a fast-growing economy that Maryland targeted for trade expansion in 2009. Those nations can be abbreviated as BRICS — — Brazil,  Russia, India, China and South Africa.

—Len Lazarick
Len@MarylandReporter.com

About The Author

Len Lazarick

len@marylandreporter.com

Len Lazarick was the founding editor and publisher of MarylandReporter.com and is currently the president of its nonprofit corporation and chairman of its board He was formerly the State House bureau chief of the daily Baltimore Examiner from its start in April 2006 to its demise in February 2009. He was a copy editor on the national desk of the Washington Post for eight years before that, and has spent decades covering Maryland politics and government.

Support Our Work!

We depend on your support. A generous gift in any amount helps us continue to bring you this service.

Facebook