CII India Business Forum launched in China
[Beijing, 16 April,2009] "A well-functioning financial system is necessary for the revival of the world economy" said Mrs Nirupama Rao, Ambassador of India to China, while delivering the keynote address at the Conference on "Impact of the Global Economic Crisis : Challenges and Opportunities for India and China" organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association of Embassy of India in Beijing. The event also became the platform for the launch of the India Business Forum (IBF) in China, an initiative of CII."Countries need to have effective credible fiscal stimulus, resumption of credit flows, cleaning up of the balance sheet of the financial institutions to tackle the current economic crisis" observed Mrs Nirupama Rao.
"Protectionism has to be avoided - protectionism in goods as well as services, as also financial protectionism" said Mrs Rao. In this time of global financial and economic crisis, there is need for stronger cooperation and coordination between India and China. The crisis must be turned into an opportunity by tackling it with the key commodity of confidence, opined Ambassador Rao.Both the countries, she added, are convinced of the need for continued and concerted economic liberalization that balances globalization with equitable and balanced growth that benefits the weaker and economically disadvantaged sections of our populations. Because of these strong fundamentals, both India and China has not been affected by the crisis as much compared to the western countries. Both are working together at the G-20 framework to help restore global growth and confidence and to address the systematic risks in the global financial system. The bilateral trade has increased ten-folds in the last six years and China has becomes the largest trading partner for India in 2008. She opined, by 2025, it is highly probable that China-India economic ties through trade, investment and technology linkages may be one of the most important bilateral relationship in the world. There is also a need to rectify the trade imbalance where India's trade deficit stood at USD 11.2 bln in 2008. On Indian side, there is a need to broaden and diversify the export basket. At the same time, India is seeking greater market access for its products where India has competitive advantage. She felt one of the focus areas for India Business Forum should be to address this issue.
Mr Wang Jinzhen, Vice Chairman, China Council for Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) in his inaugural address said that like India, inflicted by the global financial crisis, China's both financial market and real economy has declined. The shutting down of small scale export oriented enterprises and cutting down of work workforce is evident in the fall of bilateral trade by 37% in January 2009 compared to the same period last year. China adopted a proactive fiscal policy and moderately easy monetary policy also introduced ten measures to expand domestic demand and put in place a series of related policies to stimulate the domestic economy, he informed.Mr Wang felt that to minimize damages and achieve early recovery both the Indian and Chinese Government should cooperate closely to enhance Trade Liberalisation and facilitation and eliminate trade barrier and trade protectionism. He also called the non-governmental organizations to play an active role to facilitate enterprises in mutual investment and trade apart from developing a SME network which will help in seeing opportunities in China-India economic interaction.
Earlier, Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII in his welcome address stressed on shifting of "India or China" strategy to "India and China", which will help in deriving benefits from advantages offered by both the emerging economies. He hoped that this Forum will help in bringing together the Industry and economies of both the countries together. IBF, an initiative of CII has been earlier launched in USA, South Africa and Singapore, which is providing an excellent platform for bringing together the various Indian companies based in the country, for better cooperation, networking and knowledge sharing added Mr Banerjee. It will act as a forum for promoting India China trade through collective and consensual approach to common issues. It will also act as a platform for networking with Chinese companies interested in the doing business with India, think tanks and other policy makers in China.
Mr J J Shrikhande, Chairman, CII IBF China also touched upon the various activities the forums intends to take up in the future. One of the key focus areas of IBF will be to work with Embassy and others towards building "Brand India" by creating platforms to showcase the sectoral strengths of India, areas of cooperation for trade and investment and share good practices to learn from each other, he said.The conference was well attended with more than 120 representatives from various Chinese and Indian companies based in China apart from officials from the Government departments and Embassy. The conference also has session focusing on the success stories of Indian companies in China and Chinese companies in India and investment opportunities for Chinese companies in India.
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