Prince Philippe's Trade Mission To India Soon, Says Yves Leterme; India-European Union FTA Is On The Anvil, Asserts Vayalar Ravi
Mr Yves Leterme, Belgium's Minister of Foreign Affairs, called upon the enterprising business leaders in India and Belgium to take full advantage of the close economic ties between India and European Union for expanding their businesses by forging partnership in the fields of trade, industry, investment and transfer of technology and know-how for mutual benefit.
Mr Yves Leterme, who was the chief guest at the Indian Merchants' Chamber's 10th “India Calling" Conference, at Hotel Conrad in Brussels on September 30, was inaugurating the three-day India-Europe business partnership summit, in the august presence of Mr Vayalar Ravi, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, Government of India.
Mr Leterme complimented Indian Merchants' Chamber and its partners - The Europe India Chamber of Commerce and Belgo-Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry - for organizing this grand event, the biggest-ever Indian business mission hosted in Belgium.
He said the conference was being held at the most opportune time between the two historic events - the state visit of Belgium's King Albert II to India in November 2008 and the Prince Philippe-led Belgian Economic Mission to India, scheduled in March 2010.
The timing of this three-day Business summit assumed an added significance, because "Belgium will assume the Presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2010 and will host the EU-India Summit in Brussels in that capacity", he said.
Indian Minister Vayalar Ravi, who was the guest of honour, said that India, "which is an ancient civilization but a young nation," was today the world's largest and the fastest growing free market democracy and stood tall like a beacon of hope among the emerging nations.
He said the conference provided an opportunity for all to enhance and energize substantive and strategic economic engagement between India and Europe. The European Union was India’s topmost partner in the area of trade and investment inflows and one of the major partners in the field of economic and development cooperation.
For further reinforcing the relations, both India and European Union were now engaged in negotiating a Free Trade Agreement, designed to provide a further impetus to the growing partnership.
Mr Vayalar Ravi also said that by 2020, India would have the world’s largest youth population, and the world's largest workforce, 'estimated at over 820 million in the working age group as compared to its 400 million strong workforce today'. The scenario presented a tremendous opportunity to both domestic and foreign players to fund and operate infrastructure development projects on the basis of a public-private partnership (PPP) model.
Welcoming the distinguished guests, delegates and other participants to the conference, the IMC President, Mr Gul Kirpalani, highlighted the significance of the India-EU business partnership summit against the backdrop of a dismal global economic environment. He complimented the authorities of the European Union for actively assisting in promotion of this conference at this histoeric juncture.
A publication released at the conference by the IMC's knowledge partner, KPMG, on the scope for improving the trade and economic relations between India and Europe would go a long way in enabling the delegates to engage in in-depth deliberations, he said.
HRH Prince Philippe of Belgium held a wonderful reception at his premises in the honour of Mr Kripalani and the IMC delegation comprising over 250 delegates - 120 from India and 130 from Europe.
Appreciating his grand gesture, Mr Kripalani expressed his gratitude to him for offering to the IMC the free use of an office space for one year for carrying on its promotional activities in Belgium, 'which is the gateway to Europe and by itself also an important centre of business'.
He also thanked Prince Philippe for accepting the IMC’s offer to play host to the Belgian delegation, which was scheduled to visit Mumbai in March 2010.
A panel of leading educationists from Europe and India led the education session. It was one among the total of 13 plenary sessions held during the conference.
Prof Frits Van Merode of University of Maastricht; Mr J S Saharia, Principal Secretary ( Higher & Technical Education) of Maharashtra Government and Dr Indu Shahani, Sheriff of Mumbai & Principal, H R College of Commerce & Economics, addressed the session, which was chaired by Dr Ram Tarneja, IMC's past President.
The session arrived at the consensus that education in India was overall in the right direction, but it still fell short of the specific needs of India's burgeoning youth population. In view of this, it was recommended that the education sector, which was the fountain of the human resource development of the nation, should transform itself to meet the emerging needs. .
Dr Ram Tarneja said, "In India we have an Anglo Saxon approach to education, starting with kindergarten and ending so far as Ph. D. What we are now looking for is a fusion of the European and Anglo Saxon approach to education".
Prof Frits Van Merode described the areas of education in which the Indian educational institutes and the Maastricht and other Universities in Europe could collaborate in strengthening of their faculty, in enhancing brain circulation and in making Universities less institutionalized and formally regulated, so that the human potential could fully blossom globally.
Dr Indu Shahani said that a country’s foundation lay in its classrooms. In pursuit of a collaborative approach to furthering the cause of education, during her stay in Europe, she had signed a memorandum of association with a university in France recently.
Mr J S Saharia presented the prevailing education scenario in Maharashtra and invited participation from Europe in the field of skill development programmes in Maharashtra.
ING Belgium Bank's President hosted a 'cocktails evening' in honour of all the conference delegates at the bank premises on October 2. This gala evening provided an excellent scope to the delegates for networking, scouting for business opportunities, and for firming up various kinds of business partnerships.
The Bank President said that the conference offered to IMC delegation members and their European counterparts a rare opportunity to build upon the existing social, economic and financial bonds between India and Europe in general and India and Belgium in particular. "Sunrise sectors such as ICT, financial services, and automotive industries offer ample opportunities to work together", he said.
ING Bank, which had considerable presence in India, was planning to expand its presence further to avail the numerous new opportunities arising in India, the second fastest growing economy in the world.
Baron Dilip Mehta, CEO of Rosy Blue, a well-known Indian company, spoke about the progressive economic scenario prevailing in India and the culture of inclusiveness that was common in both India and Belgium. He pointed out that the former distrust between Indian business and foreigners had given place to an extremely cordial relationship between them.
Arvind Pradhan
Director General
