Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday consulted with Indian and American corporate leaders in the first CEOs' Forum in Washington in an effort to "build trade and increase investment."
Speaking at a joint press conference with Mr Bush in the East Room of the White House, Dr Manmohan Singh said the two leaders discussed "a growing Indian economy with an accelerated growth rate, and its integration with the world economy expand the scope for commerce, investment and technological collaboration between our two countries."
The CEOs' Forum includes 10 corporate heavyweights from each country - Ratan Tata of the Tata Group, Dr Pratap Reddy of Apollo Hospitals Group, Yogesh Deveshwar of ITC Ltd, Nanadan Nilekani of Infosys Group, Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries, Baba Kalyani of Bharat Forge, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon India Group, Deepak Parekh of HDFC, Ashok Ganguly of ICICI One Source, Analjit Singh of Max India Group, Paul Hanrahan of the AES Corporation, Warren Staley of Cargill Inc, Charles Prince of Citigroup, William Harrison of JP Morgan Chase, Christopher Rodrigues of Visa International, Harold McGraw of the McGraw-Hill Companies, Thomas O'Neill of Parsons Brinckerhoff, Steve Reinemund of PepsiCo Inc, Anne Mulachy of Xerox Corporation, David Cote of Honeywell.
"The forum includes some of the best business minds of our two countries," Dr Manmohan Singh noted, prior to the meeting.
Mr Bush noted the expertise of these private sector leaders "will help our two governments build trade and increase investment for the good of our peoples."
The economic dialogue is co-convened by Allan Hubbard, assistant to the president for economic policy and director of the National Economic Council, and Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission.
The State Department noted both the US and Indian Governments had agreed to create a "high-level private sector forum to exchange business community views on key economic priorities."
"Input from the business community is an integral component of a successful bilateral economic dialogue," the department said in a statement.
India and the US jointly announced a series of initiatives designed to build a long-term knowledge-driven partnership between the two countries.
Cleaner energy resources, including nuclear power, are vital for the future of both the Indian and US economies, the President noted. "We have begun a bilateral energy dialogue to find ways to work together in this important area. Our two nations also have a common interest in bettering the lives of people around the world." He also announced the launch of a disaster response initiative to better respond to future natural disasters.
Mr Bush announced the completion of phase two of the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership. "Completing this partnership will help us further enhance our cooperation in the spheres of civil nuclear, civil space and high technology," he said.
The United States and India signed an umbrella science and technology agreement aimed at strengthening the science and technology capabilities of both countries, expand relations between their extensive scientific and technological communities, and to promote technological and scientific cooperation in areas of mutual benefit.
The agreement, for the first time, establishes intellectual property right protocols and other provisions necessary to conduct active collaborative research, will accelerate cooperation between Indian and American scientists in government agencies, private sector and academia in such areas as basic sciences, space, energy, nanotechnology, health, and information technology.
The new agreement will complement the activity of the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum by facilitating follow-on technical collaborations.
"We're charting new steps in our defence relationship with the recently signed new framework that would help our two nations work towards common security objectives. We are working together on counterterrorism to help protect our people and make the world a safer place," Mr Bush said. "We are also committed to increasing the prosperity of the people of India and America alike."
