By Tarun Basu, IANS
Beijing : Asking Indian business leaders not to view China through the Western prism, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday told a delegation of CEOs who have come here that they should “think big”, engage China and make them develop a stake in investing in India.
A 27-member delegation drawn from both the main business chambers met Manmohan Singh Sunday afternoon ahead of the India-China trade and investment meeting Monday. The delegation was led by Sunil Bharti Mittal, president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and Habil Khorakiwala, president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).
Manmohan Singh, the quintessential globaliser, told the CEOs in what was clearly seen as a policy statement that “the rise of China and India should be viewed as an ‘international public good’ by the global community.”
In the meeting attended by Commerce Minister Kamal Nath and National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan, the business leaders were clearly told that the government had no reservations about Chinese investment other than “locational sensitivity” in regard to one or two places.
The government welcomes Chinese investment in infrastructure projects in India and had even cleared a power project by a Chinese company in Jammu and Kashmir in a joint venture with the Jindals, the CEOs were told.
Urging Indian businessmen to “think big”, the prime minister said: “Indian business is ready to face the brave new world of globalization. China is an important part of that brave new world. We must engage China and learn to both compete and cooperate.”
He said it was a “historic necessity” for the two neighbours to work together. “There will be areas of competition, and there will be areas for cooperation. There is enough space for both countries to continue to grow and address the developmental aspirations of their peoples.”
Manmohan Singh said a large part of the thinking in India about China was shaped by Western views on China and added that there was need for greater investment in India and a better understanding of the processes of change in China.
At present Chinese investment in India was almost negligible, while Indian investment stands marginally better in the range of $50-60 million even as two-way trade booms and has touched almost $38 billion. It was set to cross the $40 billion target well before the 2010 target date announced by the two countries five years ago.
Nevertheless, people like Khorakiwala, who is the chairman of pharma major Wockhardt, brought before the prime minister and the commerce minister some of the restrictive trade practices that Indian businessmen are facing in China and urged him to address them in his meetings with Chinese leaders Monday and Tuesday.
Predatory pricing by the Chinese had forced four Indian companies to close down in China in recent months. And the Chinese, after lowering the price that made Indian generic drugs uncompetitive in the Chinese market, raised the prices again after the exit of the Indian companies from China.
The meeting was attended also by Narendra Goyal, chairman, Jet Airways, Pawan Munjal, CEO of Hero Honda Motors, Subhash Chandra, chairman, Zee Entertainment, Vinod Mittal, MD of Ispat Industries, Amit Mitra, secretary general of FICCI and Lt Gen (retd) S.S. Mehta, director general of CII.