MM Lee says India must urbanise to catch up with China
By Dominique Loh, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 10 October 2008 2112 hrs

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SINGAPORE: Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew believes India needs to move its communities from the rural areas to its cities before the country can catch up to booming economies like China.

Speaking at the Global Indian Diaspora Conference held in Singapore on Friday, Mr Lee said urbanising India is a given.

For the audience of several hundred business leaders and academics, it was an opportunity to pick the brain of the minister mentor. Many questions focused on how India can move its economy forward.

Mr Lee stressed that the romanticised ideal of the Indian village will not make the grade.

He said: "If you do not accept that development means you will have a drift from the countryside to the towns, leaving less in the countryside to till even larger plots of land with mechanised means, then you will never develop."

MM Lee said India is only moving at 60 per cent of China's pace but is capable of more. One of the issues India needs to tackle is improving its infrastructure, such as roads and airports.

The minister mentor said India will also benefit, now that the US-India nuclear deal has gone through. With nuclear power, India will not have to depend on coal and gas, which can worsen environmental concerns and the world's dependency on oil.

When asked by an audience member what was Singapore's secret to success, Mr Lee replied that it boiled down to a few factors.

These include the integrity of an incorruptible government, which also created a level playing field based on a system of meritocracy, and also gave equal opportunities to everyone. - CNA/vm