Talking to reporters, president of SGCCI Rajendra Chokhawala, said that the SGCCI was the first chamber of commerce that had introduced its own website, through which industrialists could now advertise and popularise their products on a wider scale with nominal costs.``Besides the website, people can now have access to information on CD-ROM and printed matter too,'' he added.

The chamber will provide CD-ROMS of data as well as printed directories from the website to all those who wish to gather information on the local industry as well as those who wish to import or export goods and raw materials. A live demonstration of the website for industrialists and public has been organised at Samruddhi on Thursday. Stressing the need to keep pace with the technology, especially in times of recession, Chokawala said that while profits had gone down considerably over the past couple of years, marketing of products had become increasingly costlier with no guaranteed returns. ``Advertising on the Internet would not only be cheaper, but the reach too would be extensive,'' he added.

The chamber has already invited those who wish to advertise their products on the Net. Providing details, chairman of the Information Technology committee of the SGCCI, Sharad Kapadia said that advertising costs of one page would cost Rs 13,000 which would include graphics and text. Launched at an initial cost of Rs 1 lakh, officials stated that the costs of the project would be incremental as records would be updated and added periodically. Kapadia said that in order to speed up access and linkage of the website which has been named as htpp.//www.suratchamber.com, it will be run on 40 search engines.

The website has been designed by Aplitech Solutions, Ahmedabad and will be updated periodically from there. The index page of the website has already been completed, while other details are still being loaded onto the site, officials said.