The early settlement of boundary issue between India and China is imperative, but should not be a pre-condition for mutual engagements in various development sectors, Ambassador-Designate to the People's Republic of China Ashok Kantha said here today.
"Unresolved boundary issue will be a heavy baggage in Indo-China relations. At the same time it should not be a pre condition for friendly engagements between the two neighbours," he said in his keynote address at the sixth All India Conference of China Studies (AICCS), organised by the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK), here.
Highlighting how China's socialist market economy holds lessons for democratic developing countries like India,he said that country's contribution to the transformation of the society was improvisation.
Kantha noted that China was all set to overtake U.S.A. As the world's largest economy and said the nation had attained extraordinary achievements since 1978.
Prof. Debashis Chatterjee,Director,IIM-K, who also spoke, said China's description of itself as 'socialism with Chinese characteristics' has its contradictions. But there was no denying it has served the cause of its economic and social change remarkably. "For that reason alone it deserves our serious attention'.
"Emerging economies such as China and India have borrowed all they can by way of technology and resources and they now need to start innovating and inventing on their own.The richer our countries get, the tougher the growth challenge and the more is the need for innovation and experimentation", he said.
Prof. Manoranjan Mohanty, Chairman, Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS),emphasized the need to understand and learn the strengths of China and India without getting swayed away by emotions, creating a shining place of new thought.
Prof. Alka Acharya, ICS Director and conference convenor, highlighted the convergence and similarities of the two nations and to build bridges not only in political space but also in cultural, social and economic spheres.
The annual All India Conference of China Studies is a flagship event of ICS, partially funded by Indian Council of Social Research. Its main objective is to spread interest and strengthen research in China and East Asian Studies in India.
AICCS is held once annually in an Indian academic institute where research and teaching on China Studies are conducted. The conference has three principal parts: an examination of the state of the field of China Studies in the country, a special theme for the conference and a focus on the latest work of MPhil/PhD scholars.
