New Delhi (Sputnik): In an attempt to capture the defense market in East Asia, India's state-owned firm and country's leading defense electronic company Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) opened its first-ever representative office in Vietnam on Wednesday.
BEL India's impressive new office in Hanoi, Vietnam. Great step towards greater defence exports for @DefProdnIndia. Long term commitment to Vietnam @AmbHanoi @DefencePost @ETDefence @SpokespersonMoD pic.twitter.com/POKDX3Aqtw
— Ajay Kumar (@drajaykumar_ias) June 13, 2018
"The Representative Office will aim to promote BEL's exports in areas such as Weapons Systems, Radar Systems, Naval Systems, Military Communication Systems, Electronic Warfare Systems, Combat Management System and Coastal Surveillance System," BEL said in a statement.
The company will also use the representative office to address export business opportunities and to provide product support and services to users in the region.
Strengthening India-Vietnam 🇮🇳🇻🇳 defence cooperation,
— Raksha Mantri (@DefenceMinIndia) June 13, 2018
Smt @nsitharaman in a bilateral meeting with H E General Ngo Xuan Lich, Defence Minister of Vietnam at Ministry of Defence headquarter in Hanoi.@AmbHanoi pic.twitter.com/Za0zPWJuUv
BEL registered a turnover growth of 14% over the previous year which includes an export turnover of $26 million. It mainly exports products such as Coastal Surveillance System, CoMPASS, Advanced Composite Communication System, Electro-Mechanical parts, etc. BEL has been exporting products and services to countries such as the USA, Germany, France, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Italy, Namibia, and Honduras. The firm claims that it had export orders of $92 million as of April 1, 2018; including the offset order of $35 million.
The Indian government has been in discussions with several East Asian countries for the sale of the Akash missile system and several naval subsystems. BEL had successfully developed domestic RF Seekers for the Akash 1S missile system.
