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SINGAPORE : Against the backdrop of a worldwide economic slump, India, together with China, could provide the engine of growth for the global economy.
That is the view of delegates who are in Singapore for the Global Indian Diaspora Conference.
Speaking at the event, Singapore's Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong also voiced his confidence in the Indian market, saying that Singapore and ASEAN stand to benefit from India's rise.
Touching on his personal engagement with India, Mr Goh is convinced that India will be the next engine of growth, alongside China.
India now accounts for almost 7 per cent of the world's gross domestic product. And by 2050, India's working population will be 50 per cent larger than China's.
It was Senior Minister Goh who started the mild "Indian fever" back in 1993, and that has since become somewhat a global pandemic.
Moving forward, Mr Goh said there needs to be greater engagement between India and ASEAN, because India is one of the key economic pillars for the region. He said that being at the heart of Asia, Singapore can be a gateway for India into the region.
The Senior Minister said: "Dr Manmohan Singh was aware of Singapore's strategic location when he said that if the Indian government wanted to 'market New India', they would have to begin in Singapore.
"Singapore shares 'New India's' pro-market ideology. We have an inclusive cosmopolitan community which welcomes Indian enterprise and talents. India and Singapore have shared strategic interests in contributing to Asia's growth and stability.
"What gave me confidence in India when many people were sceptical about the country then? One of the key factors is the Indian diaspora.
"I had seen what the Indians outside India had achieved - in the US and in Singapore, for example. Their accomplishments gave me confidence in the potential of Indians as a people. If India had not performed, it was their insular bureaucracy, amongst other reasons.
"As I told several Indian leaders then, India should not aim just to be economically self-sufficient. It should use its huge population to also produce for the rest of the world, just as China had begun to do. If India adopted a global mindset, its future prospects would be bright."
Already, there are now more than 3,200 Indian companies in Singapore. But more can be done.
Mr Goh pointed to obstacles in trying to establish a Special Economic Zone with India, unlike in China where things moved along fairly quickly with the recent groundbreaking ceremony of the Eco-City in Tianjin.
Mr Goh said: "Land is a very sensitive issue in India. The project has to be very commercial. It cannot be a project where the government simply acquires the land and gives it to the private enterprise. So we are interested, still looking for that piece of land.
"China could move much faster with the Tianjin Eco-City project. That does not mean China does not have sensitivity issues with the land acquisition. Because this was supposed to be an Eco-City, Premier Wen's approval for the project was subject to certain conditions.
"It must not be agricultural land. The place must be short of water. So, in fact the land given to us was 30 square kilometres of salt pans... they had a waste pond, toxic... they had a river which was polluted. We are now going to turn that into an Eco-City. So India, if they can give us 30 square kilometres, whether it is wasteland or good land, we can have a look at that."
Delegates were equally optimistic. Rajat M Naj, managing director general, Asian Development Bank, said that the current financial crisis will not hurt India much in the medium term. Others pointed to the rise of Indian multinational corporations.
Vijay Iyengar, chairman, Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries, said: "The current economic backdrop may temporise the engagement a bit, but the engagement is a continuous process, and I think Indian companies have been approaching the region.
"For the last two years, we have seen a 10 to 20 per cent growth in the number of Indian companies coming into Singapore. It might scale down a bit, but they will still come, because India is still in the initial stages of economic growth, so they will need to internationalise."
Still, speakers at the conference pointed to challenges India needs to overcome to sustain its growth momentum, like building up infrastructure and promoting commercial agriculture in its rural sector.
Mr Goh said: "India is a big country and given its present supply-side constraints and infrastructural inadequacies, we can expect development to be uneven across the states.
"An Egyptian minister once told me that Egypt's bureaucracy has a history of 5,000 years, so it is difficult to make changes. The bureaucracy of the Republic of India has far fewer years of history, and changes should be easier to make." - CNA/yb/ms
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