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In addition to
Capital Resources, Roy worked with some other companies and also represented
some Indian pharmaceutical companies such as Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and
Lupin Ltd. in China. In 1994, he started his own trading business with some
Indian friends. However, the business initially failed to make much headway and,
in 1996, the company was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. But in 1996, it
managed to get a sizeable US$1.5 million order from a Chinese company to source
iron ore from Paradeep, India.
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That was the turning point and the business started
to grow. Roy said, "After that, we never looked back. Our strategy was
basically to tell Chinese buyers, 'India and China are both poor
countries so why give 5 per cent to a Japanese or American company?'" 6
In 1996, in what some analysts saw as a defining moment of his life, Roy
married Tian Fu, a Chinese lawyer and businesswoman whom he had met a
few years earlier. In 2000, Roy, his wife, and in-laws bought a stake in
the Yongtong Group that had an interest in textiles, jade quarries,
minerals, and tires.
By 2006, he was the only Indian (also the only foreigner) director in
the US$600 million conglomerate.7 According to Roy, his wife's
contribution to his success went beyond providing the moral support
required to run an entrepreneurial venture in a foreign country. "My
wife enabled me to become part of Chinese society and a wide network of
business people here,"8 he said.
As of 2008, he was not only a successful businessman in China, but had
also established himself as an expert in China-related affairs. He also
held a key position in the Environmental Education Media Project9 (EEMP)
and had supervised a number of sustainable development projects in
collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the
World Bank.
He acted as an adviser to the local governments of Jinan, Qingdao, Zibo,
etc., on how to attract foreign investment and bring in reforms in
regulations to enable foreign businesses to operate in these provinces.
Roy had also acted as adviser to China Huayang Group10 on international
affairs.
In 2002, he was the adviser to the Confederation of Indian Industry11 (CII)
on trade with China. Over the years, he had been involved in organizing
and coordinating many ministerial delegations between China and India.12
In 2006, he invested US$11 million in his home city Kolkata13 through
Txyco Ltd, in which he was a director and general manager, by forming a
joint venture with a Kolkata-based company Global Binary Concept to
manufacture computer hardware.
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6] Pallavi Aiyar, "Doing Business Successfully in
China, Sagnik Roy's Way," www.thehindu.com, February 25, 2008.
7] In 2007, the Yongtong Group had a turnover of
US$700 million.
8] Saibal Dasgupta, "Indian Scholar Makes it Big in
China Biz," www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com, September 7, 2006.
9] The Environmental Education Media Project (EEMP)
is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to research and collaborative
learning in environmental, sustainable development, and public health subjects.
10] China Huayang Group is a subsidiary of China
Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), a trade body of the
Chinese government founded in 1952.
11] The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is a
trade body in India.
12] www.zoominfo.com.
13] Kolkata is the capital of West Bengal |
