The Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee
has said that there is need to look at conventional as well as
innovative mechanism to promote economic integration between India
and ASEAN. Inaugurating the first India-ASEAN Business Summit
here today, the Prime Minister underlined that India and ASEAN
have a mutual interest in working towards beneficial preferential
and free trade arrangements. About the reform process in India,
the Prime Minister said that there can be no looking back from
the path of reforms which continue to target high growth with
balanced and equitable development.
Following is text of the Prime Minister’s address
on the occasion :-
"It is a great pleasure to be with you this morning
for this first India-ASEAN Business Summit. It is a valuable forum
for networking and exchange of business experiences between policy
makers and business leaders from ASEAN and India. This interaction,
both here and in Hyderabad, should contribute important inputs
for the India-ASEAN Summit in Cambodia, just over two weeks from
now.
Economic co-operation is a crucial pillar of
the India-ASEAN relationship. As in the case of the India-European
Union dialogue, I believe that the Business Summit should become
a traditional curtain raiser for the India-ASEAN Summit. ASEAN
already has a long tradition of industry-government partnerships.
We should inject such joint endeavours also into the India-ASEAN
relationship.
I extend to our ASEAN guests a very warm welcome
to India. I specially appreciate the presence amongst us of the
Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand, and the distinguished Ministers
from Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. Later today,
the Prime Minister of Malaysia will address a special session
of this Summit. There is impressive representation from business
and industry of all the ASEAN countries. The fact that so many
of you have taken time off from your busy schedules to be here,
speaks volumes for the commitment to India-ASEAN economic relations
in ASEAN business and governments.
India and Southeast Asia have shared much in
centuries past. The varied history of our interaction has permeated
our societies and enriched our cultures. This includes a rich
sea-faring tradition, which brought us in close contact through
trade.
In more recent times, our paths diverged as we
followed different models for development. The Cold War also cast
a long shadow. We remained friendly neighbours, but with differing
political outlooks and economic orientations.
The passing of the Cold War and the launch of
India’s economic reforms about a decade ago, dramatically altered
this picture. We have developed a common interest in a multi-polar,
plural world. Our political dialogue and economic interaction
have intensified. India became a sectoral dialogue partner of
ASEAN in 1992, full dialogue partner in 1995, and a member of
the ASEAN Regional Forum in 1996. The commencement of regular
Summit-level India-ASEAN dialogue next month will be a new watershed
in this growing relationship.
India’s geographical proximity to ASEAN is often
not grasped fully. We have maritime borders with Thailand and
Indonesia. Our Andaman and Nicobar Islands are very close to some
ASEAN countries. In recent years, with the expansion of ASEAN,
we have moved even closer. We now share a land border of about
1600 kilometres with ASEAN in Myanmar.
Friends,
It is often said that the 21st century
will be the Asian century. This is not mere rhetoric. The centre
of gravity of the world is shifting gradually, but decisively,
towards the Asia-Pacific. In one form or the other, Asia is set
to dominate the politics and economics of this century.
We have a sound, objective basis for this belief
in Asia’s future. Asia has the population numbers and the market
sizes. It has a growing number of urban centers with world-class
infrastructure. Fundamentally, however, it is Asia’s human capital,
which is the core reason for this optimism. Our rapidly expanding
middle classes boast a wealth of professional skills, scientific
talent, and abundant business enterprise. The skills and work
ethic of our industrial workers is legendary.
Asia’s strengths are evident in the new economy.
Our countries missed the Industrial Revolution, because many of
us were under colonial domination at that time. But we are today
at the forefront of the Knowledge Revolution. From information
technology to genetics, from pure science to biotechnology, Asian
professionals and scientists have won worldwide respect. Our proficiency
in the knowledge-based economy has given us the unique opportunity
to accelerate our progress and to catch up with the developed
countries in a foreseeable timeframe.
Friends,
India and ASEAN have a historic opportunity today
to promote this process to mutual benefit by exploiting the synergies
between them.
Trade is the backbone of any economic relationship.
Our two-way trade of less than 10 billion dollars does not do
justice to our population of one and a half billion people producing
a trillion and a half dollars worth of goods and services annually.
Our businesses need greater awareness of opportunities. The two-way
flow of information has to be accelerated. This requires active
relations between our chambers of commerce, and regular exchanges
of business delegations.
Over the past decade, ASEAN has made rapid progress
towards internal integration through the ASEAN Free Trade Area.
There are other existing and potential regional arrangements in
Asia-Pacific. I believe India and ASEAN have a mutual interest
in the working towards beneficial preferential and free trade
arrangements. We need to look at conventional, as well as innovative
mechanisms, to promote economic integration. India is already
committed to reducing its peak tariff rates to East Asian levels
within the next three years. We are continuously introducing measures
for improving market access, harmonization of standards and simplification
of documents. We seek reciprocal measures from our partners. We
see a Regional Trade and Investment Area as a near-term objective
of India-ASEAN economic relations.
The present global economic slowdown provides
an immediate context for our closer regional integration. The
western economies which have been the mainstay of Asia’s foreign
investment and export-led growth today face uncertain prospects
of recovery in the near future. Meanwhile, India continues on
an uninterrupted growth trajectory averaging an economic growth
of about six percent. We should, therefore, build on the complementarities
between the Indian and ASEAN economies. This can also cushion
us against the impact of a downturn in external markets.
Each of our countries has achieved expertise
and even dominance in certain areas of technology. It is crucial
that we cooperate by complementing our respective strengths, rather
than undercutting each other.
By pursuing these objectives, India and ASEAN
can become mutually reinforcing engines of growth and development.
Our countries have benefited from the vast expansion
of trade, investment and economic cooperation in the wake of globalization.
But we also note its uneven benefits, among and within nations.
Globalization cannot be sustained as a one-way quest for developing
country markets by the products and capital of the developed world.
We need greater equity and a larger share of the fruits of globalization
for developing countries. These socio-economic goals can be promoted
through sub-regional cooperation which pays special attention
to the needs of less developed areas in a region. In this context,
India attaches the greatest importance to the Initiative for ASEAN
integration. We have launched human resource development programmes
in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam under this initiative.
We would be happy to expand into more development projects in
these countries. Specifically, we have offered our assistance
for a communications network involving highways, railways, river
navigation and port facilities.
It is with the same perspectives that India has
supported Mekong-Ganga Cooperation bringing together Cambodia,
Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and India. We are also implementing
another sub-regional initiative for a road link connecting India,
Myanmar and Thailand.
In all these projects, there is scope for participation
by private business, along with the governments.
India has also consistently supported such cooperative
ventures to promote development within SAARC. Although we have
been foiled in this effort by unrelated political obstacles, we
are now focussing our attention on sub-regional cooperation within
SAARC, as well as regional and sub-regional cooperation with groupings
like ASEAN. The sub-continental size of India’s market and the
wealth of its resources make it a credible economic partner for
regional and sub-regional organizations.
One of the strengths of the economic bonds between
India and ASEAN is that investment flows have been in both directions.
Whereas India’s links with Europe and America have been mainly
as a recipient of investment, Indians have been investing in South-east
Asia over the past four decades. Indian or Indian-origin entrepreneurs
today own the world’s largest palm oil refinery in Malaysia, one
of the largest carbon black manufacturing units in Thailand and
a number of large textile units in Indonesia. These examples could
be multiplied. All these investments took place well before India’s
economic liberalization in the nineties. The pace of Indian investment
in ASEAN is poised to increase rapidly with our liberal policy
framework combined with the obvious advantages of the ASEAN Free
Trade Area.
A major pillar of the economic success of several
ASEAN countries is their excellent infrastructure. In power, urban
municipal services, airports and roads, ASEAN countries are well-equipped
and their companies globally competitive. India’s relative weakness
in this sphere provides a further complementarity between us.
I am happy that this Summit will pay special attention to identifying
opportunities of mutual interest in this sector.
I would like to briefly dwell on the future direction
of India’s economic reforms. Very recently, while talking to the
European business community, I had referred to the current fashion
of comparing economies to creatures like dragon, tigers and elephants.
Like an elephant, the Indian economy may be somewhat slow to gather
momentum but when it does so, it is unstoppable and irreversible.
I assured our European business friends that such hiccups as they
may see in our liberalization process, are only the democratic
process of reconciling divergences and achieving consensus. Our
reform process continues to target high growth with balanced and
equitable development. Our ambitious GDP growth target of 8% exhorts
us to stay on this path. There can be no looking back.
I would also like to assure my ASEAN business
friends that we are making every effort to make our policies more
investor friendly, using e-governance to tackle the problems of
cumbersome procedure, paper work and bureaucracy. We hope a transformation
will soon be evident.
Friends,
My remarks today would not be complete without
a reference to the barbaric terrorist act in Bali last week. This
inhuman act calls for the harshest condemnation. Your Summit also
cannot ignore the negative impact of such terrorist acts on business
climate in the affected country and in the region.
I had the pleasure of visiting Bali last year
and of savouring its unique cultural charm. Our hearts go out
to the shockingly large number of innocent tourists and local
people, who perished in the bomb attack. We in India have been
the victims of such terrorism for a long time.
Governments alone cannot effectively fight this
grave danger to world peace and human civilization. The time has
come to broad base the struggle against terrorism and religious
extremism. The business community in India and the ASEAN region
will have to play an active role in this struggle.
The diversity and openness of our societies are
the proud features of both India and ASEAN. We are home to major
religions of the world, and accommodate diverse ethnic, cultural,
artistic and spiritual traditions. We must preserve this precious
heritage of pluralism. It helps us to mediate conflict with compassion,
understanding and democratic dialogue. Needless to add, this unique
ability of our societies also has obvious economic and business
spin-offs. Let us turn this shared heritage into a strong weapon
against terrorism and the mindset that breeds it.
I wish you productive deliberations in New Delhi
and in Hyderabad. I hope your work will lead to concrete business
and exchanges and tie-ups. I also wish you success in making this
dialogue a productive institutional mechanism to enhance the economic
component of the India-ASEAN Summit.
Thank you."
