Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a successful visit to China. I was happy to be part of the visit and wrote an article, summarising the visit with three supers: super high-level reception, super-friendly atmosphere and super fruitful results. Twenty-six business agreements were signed covering a wide range of areas. I remember saying to Indian press before the visit that no less than $10 billion of agreements were to be expected. What I didn't know at that time was it would be twice as much and reach $22 billion. What's more encouraging is that the visit has greatly boosted the enthusiasm of both sides and brought about a bright prospect for our industrial cooperation.
China has entered a new stage of industrialisation with a lot of competitive industries that are ready to go global. India has huge demand and great potential in industrialisation. China's newly released strategy of "Made in China 2025" and Prime Minister Modi's "Make in India" strategy are compatible and complementary. China and India are close to each other geographically, culturally, and philosophically, and our people have enjoyed a natural affinity since antiquity. All these have set the stage for close cooperation. On top of that, the Modi government has taken effective measures to enhance government efficiency, improve market environment, and make it easier for Chinese businesses to invest in India: including granting e-visa to Chinese nationals, appointing a joint secretary in the PMO (Prime Minister's Office) to overlook Chinese investment and relaxing restrictions and security checks for Chinese companies.
I believe there are three keys to advance our industrial cooperation. The key areas of China-India industrial cooperation are infrastructure and manufacturing. The Modi government has set the goal of increasing infrastructure by 15-20 per cent in 2015, including more rural roads, highway, power generation and electricity. With China's reliable technology and advanced facilities offered at an affordable price, infrastructure can be a highlight in our cooperation. The railway cooperation is a case in point. We are also working together in smart city projects. Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, GIFT, and Shenzhen of China have been chosen as the first batch of pilot cities in our smart city cooperation.
Manufacturing is another important area of cooperation as it is the industrial foundation for economic development. China has accumulated abundant experience, technology, capital and human resources in manufacturing. At the same time, India's high-end manufacturing such as pharmaceutical and IT (information technology) can find a ready market in China. I was impressed to see the progress of Chinese industrial parks in Pune and Vadodara. Once (the) Pune industrial park is completed, it will create 100,000 jobs and produce an annual output of $20 billion. Indian software giant, Wipro, has set up an R&D centre in Chengdu Tianfu Software Park, opened offices in Shanghai and Dongguan, and plans to further expand its business in China.
The key focus of China-India industrial cooperation is at the local level. I am deeply impressed by the diversity in India. For instance, Punjab in the north is a big agriculture state while Tamil Nadu in the south is strong in car manufacturing. The same is true with China, a big country with huge diversity. In this sense, sub-national cooperation is an effective way to tap into the full potential of different regions. There are eight sister cities and two sister states between China and India. A regional cooperation forum was established during Prime Minister Modi's visit to China, the first such forum India has launched with any country. Last month, the new head of Linyi, Shandong province visited India and briefed me about the China-India software industrial park there. Some 40 Indian software engineers have made it their new home, and the local government especially built a Lotus Temple-style club and opened Indian TV channels for them. As far as I know, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have become new focal points for Chinese companies in our industrial cooperation.
The key driver of China-India industrial cooperation is the business community. We are now witnessing a new wave of business cooperation between our two countries with many success stories. A well-known Chinese company, Sany, set up a plant in Pune, creating several hundred jobs for the local community. In February, I participated in the opening ceremony of Huawei's new R&D centre in Bengaluru, which employs over 2,000 local people. China Huaneng Group plans to invest $3 billion in Gujarat to build a power plant with a capacity of 4,000 Mw. Xiaomi, a Chinese mobile phone maker, is among the top five smartphone providers in India, with Ratan Tata recently acquiring a stake in the group. The partnership between the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba and its Indian counterpart Paytm is another good example. In China, there are Canton Fair, China-South Asia Expo, Central China Expo, to name a few. And in India, various investment forums have been or will be held in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka this year. I hope that the business leaders present here and across our countries will make good use of these platforms and unleash your full potential in the world's two biggest markets.
Recently, I noticed a catch word in Indian media, "Chindia", and a catch phrase, "made in Chindia". It reminds me of the latest notebook/tablet by a Chinese company Lenovo, which is lighter and faster than Mac Air of Apple, and also has a 360 degree flip-and-fold design. It is said that the popularity of this product in the US has even caused reduced sales for Apple. This Chinese product has a beautiful Indian name, Yoga. The Chinese brains behind the product got their inspiration from the elegance and flexibility of yoga and invited Bollywood star Ranbir Kapoor to be its endorser. It shows that China-India industrial cooperation is not just a concept, but a reality now.
Edited excerpts from a speech by the Chinese Ambassador to India, Le Yucheng, at the China-India Industrial Cooperation Seminar, Ficci, New Delhi, June 10, 2015
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper
