Beijing, January 13
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today underscored that “the rise of China and India should be viewed as an ‘international public good’ by the global community as it offers new opportunities to sustain growth”. The two neighbours are in a position to sustain global growth at a time when concerns about global economic slowdown are gaining.
Dr Singh, who met Indian industry and business leaders soon after his arrival in China on a three-day visit, pointed out that a large part of the thinking in India about China is shaped by western views of China. His observations came during a discussion with the high-level business delegation that is accompanying him on his visit to Beijing. Led by the CII and FICCI, the 27-member delegation had an intensive interaction with the Prime Minister on the issues expected to come up at the China-India business summit here tomorrow.
Leading lights of the business delegation wanted the Prime Minister to take up with the Chinese government the case for early reversal of trade and non-trade barriers to remedy India’s
adverse trade deficit with China. Far from encouraging this line of approach, Dr Singh told the delegation that the only way forward to become a global player was for Indian industry to become competitive. “There will be areas of competition and there will be areas of cooperation”, he said while exhorting Indian businessmen to “think big”. He wanted that India must learn to engage China and learn to both compete and cooperate. “Indian business is ready to face the brave new world of globalisation, and China is an important part of that brave new world”.
The business leaders told the Prime Minister that while they were not held down by fears over Chinese imports, there were concerns about problems created by low-priced goods from China which required to be addressed. Dr Singh urged them to study China and identify new opportunities for greater engagement. He stressed the need for greater investment in India in a situation where there was a better appreciation of the processes of change that China was going through. He said it was a historic necessity for the two countries to work together.
Indian business presence in China ranges from manufacturing and trading to IT and IT-enabled services, and the number of companies is around 95. Many large Chinese state-owned companies in machinery and infrastructure construction have won projects in India.
India-China border trade, which resumed after the signing of an MoU during Chinese Premier Li Peng’s 1991 visit to New Delhi, received a boost with the opening of a third border trading point at Nathu La in Sikkim.
