Union Minister of Commerce and Industry & Railways, Piyush Goyal will inaugurate the Global Exhibition on Services (GES) 2019 this evening in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Chief Minister of Karnataka, B. S. Yediyurappa, will be present during the inaugural function.

This is the 5^th edition of GES and is an attempt towards escalating the Indian services bar in the global arena by exploring 12 Champion Services Sectors, encompassing participation from 74 countries and hosting sector specific knowledge sessions. India is looking to attract investments and partnerships in strategic areas like aviation and space programme, infrastructure, telecom projects, financial management and accounting, content, design, media distribution and outsourcing publishing work, Intellectual Property management services and environmental/ social impact assessment.

GES 2019 is spread across 19,000 square meters.Over400 exhibitors and over 3000 delegates including 400 overseas delegates from 74 countries will be participating in the GES 2019. There are also Indian and foreign business leaders from the services industry participating in over 4370 scheduled B2B meetings over the 3 days. GES will see representation of the public and private Sector, besides the participation of 10 Ministries from the Central Government and select State Governments showcasing their strengths in the services sector.

Through GES the Government of India seeks to engage industry and Governments across the world and promote greater exchange of trade in services between India and rest of the world, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry in association with Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has created a dedicated platform, the which is an annual event. GES also looks to enhance strategic cooperation and develop synergies to strengthen multilateral relationships between all stake holders, tap the potential for services exports and increase FDI inflow.

In GES 2019 SEPC is also looking to promote eSports. The eSports industry is expected to grow rapidly and in 2017 worldwide revenue generated in eSports market amounted to USD 655 million. The market is expected to generate close to USD 1.8 billion in revenue by 2022. The regular monthly salaries of average pro-gamers may range from USD 1000 to USD 5000 apart from the money that they win from prizes. There were 270 million global fans of eSports in 2016 and the number is expected to grow to 495 million in 2020. For GES 2019 India has invited eSports federations from several countries. Participants are expected from Indonesia, Vietnam, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Japan, Maldives, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Korea.

SEPC is organizing Nations Cup (International eSports Championship) in association with Electronic Sports Federation of India (ESFI) during GES 2019. The Nations Cup will be one of the key highlights during GES and will open up multiple avenues for the services industry particularly in eSports, gaming and animation.

GES 2019 will host focused knowledge sessions on key Champion Services Sectors and will cater to many B2B, B2G and B2C meetings.

An International Moot Court competition is also being organized during GES 2019 for young lawyers,who along with their seniors, will argue cases related to intellectual property rights. In this competition participants from BIMSTEC (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan) and CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) countries are expected.

India is also aspiring to promote niche tourism like the Buddhist circuit, adventure and camping tourism.Uttar Pradesh is the partnering state mainly to promote the tourism sector and will have a separate state pavilion in GES 2019.

In order to attract more players in the services sector India has liberalized its e-visa regime in three categories: e-tourist, e-medical and e-business to promote these sectors. Multiple entry tourist and business visas for a period of five years are now available to nationals of all countries for the benefit of medical tourists. Separate immigration counters and facilitation desks have been provided at six Indian international airports of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

SEPC is an export promotion council set up by Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India in 2006 as an apex trade body to facilitate service exporters of India. SEPC actively contributes to the formulation of policies of Government of India and acts as an interface between the services industry and the Government. It has a membership base of 4800 members from the 14 service sectors.

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