ADDRESS OF MR.RAKESH SHAH, CHAIRMAN

ENGINEERING EXPORT PROMOTION COUNCIL OF INDIA

AT THE INDO LAC BUSINESS MEET 2004

AT NEW DELHI ON 26TH NOVEMBER 2004

Welcome to India and to this Indo Lac Business Meet. I am honored to extend a special welcome to Shri S N Menon, our Chief Guest who has kindly agreed to be with us this morning inspite of his very busy schedule. Sir your very presence has encouraged us and exhibits your commitment to Exports. I also extend a warm welcome to Shri Vishwanathan who has been constantly advising EEPC on ways and means to strengthen trade ties with Latin American Countries. I also welcome Shri Jayant Dasgupta.

Dear Friends, as I stand up to address you today, I am overwhelmed by a sense of history. I think of the shared bond of culture and civilization- even though the oceans separate us. In your continent, great ancient civilizations flourished. The Aztecs, the Mayans and the Incas left their indelible stamp on the face of our Earth. And who hasn’t marvelled at the ruins of Machchu Pichu? The wonder is that these civilizations existed at a time when most of our Earth was wrapped in the darkness of the Stone Age. What ‘s more, these great civilizations continue to inspire us even today.

Like you, we too have a rich past. The IndusValley civilizations of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro form the bedrock of our current times. But what really takes our breath away is the fact that your civilizations and ours had so many things in common – architectural excellence, a structured script and language, cultivation skills, urban settlements, flourishing trade and so much more. And if we leapfrog the centuries, we find that an intrepid Indian travelled to Amazon country in the nineteenth century, armed only with a sense of adventure and his own destiny.

Suffice it to say that your roots run deep. So do ours.

Like us, you too faced ruthless colonial exploitation that left our nations impoverished. And like us, you too are emerging, in Huxley’s words, “into a brave new world”.

So, my dear friends, what keeps our hearts and souls apart? Why can’t the café and carnival, salsa, the samba and football blend in with our Bharat Natyam, Taj Mahal, Cricket and the kebab? Such a fusion will certainly create a stronger bond between our two regions and give a fillip to each other’s economies.

Let us rip the curtains that have kept us apart. Your region is one of the richest in terms of natural resources and raw materials - oil and natural gas, iron ore, other industrial minerals. Our strengths are in providing services backed by massive human capital. Besides information technology and manufacturing services, Indian professionals are servicing in many countries across the globe, IT contracts, providing hotel and hospitality services, healthcare services along with accounting and legal services.

You have a large agricultural base – just like ours. Over cups of our tea and your coffee we can put our relationships under the scanner. We will find that like Michelangelo’s famous mosaic at the Sistine Chapel, our hands are close but not quite a handshake. If you look closely, my dear brothers and sisters, your share of our economic pie is minuscule. Such is also the case with us. Today India’s total exports to LAC stands at only 270 million Dollars which is less than ½ percent of Indias total exports. It is a situation we can certainly redress if there is a sincere union of our hearts. You can access technology and services from us on more advantageous terms than you are currently getting. We too are sure that we can access a lot of things from you that will strengthen our economy immensely.

There are certain areas of international trade where we could be your right partners. We have traversed the same treacherous and slippery route to development before you did and finally decided to chart our own course. We have been able to keep just the right balance between technology we needed and technology that we could develop on our own. The result is there for all of us to see.

Friends today India is the largest democracy in the world.

  • Our economy is growing at around 7.50% per year which makes us as one of the fastest growing economies of the world.
  • Our Forex Reserves are over $120 billion.
  • Our food stocks are swelling.
  • Our IT industry is booming.
  • Our pool of technical expertise is the envy of the world.
  • Our medical specialists prop up the British health system.

Friends, you would be interested to learn that India has emerged as the country of choice for accessing world-class products and services at competitive prices. 40% of total engineering exports are to the developed nations of the world.

At the time of Independence, India was a nation of shortages, food insecurity and non-existent infrastructure. Today, in this new millennium, this situation has given way to a tangible new ethos of accomplishment. India is now a global player and has entered that special club of economically dominant nations. On sheer purchasing power parity, India is now fourth in the world after the US, China and Japan. If India maintains an annual economic growth rate of 6 to 8 % over the next decade, it will overtake Japan in economic might. You just have to take a random look – may it be in telecommunications, information technology, the manufacturing sector, space research, oil exploration – and you see a confident nation that is well on the way of achieving super power status. Thus India can identify with your nation as it goes about creating its own distinct identity in this century.

As you are aware, in this millennium, we are conducting road shows, seminars and fairs in your continent so that you get a peep into the soul of India. In April 2001, with the help of the Governments of India and Venezuela, Engineering Export Promotion Council, the organization that I have the honour to head, organized the India Tech Exhibition in Venezuela. There were many enquiries and hopefully, it will provide the bridgehead for a long term and prosperous future for us together. Then again, in bustling Sao Paulo, another IndiaTech exhibition was held in September 2003. That parted the veils a little more and India became more visible to your discerning eyes. In historic Mexico, we had an engineering trade fair earlier this year, showcasing the strengths of the Indian engineering sector. It has drawn an enthusiastic response. We think that Mexico now has a clearer picture of India. We too can say unhesitatingly that we have learned a lot about your region through these initial forays.

Today we welcome with open arms you 38 friends from 14 countries- Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru, TrinidadTobago, Uruguay and Venezuela. You will get as warm a response as we got in your land.

Friends, it is said that “knowledge is power”. I would like to make a small amendment to this fundamental saying. I think, “Applied knowledge is Power”. After all, what good is knowledge about our two regions unless we are able to apply it to build concrete relationships? What I want to emphasize is that exhibitions and road shows open the doors to knowledge about each other. We now have to take these opportunities to their logical conclusion.

Dear friends to make your discovery of India a painless exercise, you have another steadfast friend – the Engineering & Export Promotion Council (EEPC) who is committed to promote trade between LAC and India. We propose to organise many more exhibitions and Business meets. We are also exploring the possibility of setting up a Showroom cum Warehousing facility- The Indiamart in Brazil to overcome the problem of long transit time and International Banking.

EEPC is India’s apex engineering trade promotion council. 12,000 engineering enterprises - large corporate houses, small and medium enterprises, trading companies – are members of the Council. EEPC has an enviable database – regularly updated and developed over fifty years .All this is at your fingertips. Your nation just has to tap it. Your businessmen and women too, are assured all help as they seek newer avenues of trade and co-operation.

We know that Rome was not built in a day. So we are aware – and I am sure so are you – of the difficulties that face us. These difficulties go beyond merely language, distance and geography. To protect your interests, you have taken a bold step towards regional integration covering free trade, mobility of capital and labour across contiguous regions so as to facilitate restructuring of core strengths on a most-efficient basis. You have formed trade alliances like MERCOSUR, CARICOM, NAFTA etc. We certainly appreciate the initiatives that you have taken – and are taking - to insulate your economies. We also realize that a nation without RTAs and FTAs is vulnerable to the pressures and pulls of international trade. But why not strengthen your economies even more? The current international mantra is bilateralism. India is looking beyond just Asia. It is aggressively looking across the oceans for FTAs. It is in this perspective that India and Latin American countries can explore the possibilities of bilateral trade and areas of common interst. Many manufactures of our two regions can then come out of the ambit of dual taxation and tariff and non-tariff barriers. In the process, our economies will be enriched.

Dear friends, mutual co-operation can work wonders. In the last WTO negotiations, you stood by us shoulder to shoulder. Together we were able to thwart many unjust clauses that if implemented, would have greatly harmed the interest of our people – especially in the field of agriculture. It would also have compromised our position in future negotiations. So let us build on these positives. We are willing to go halfway to address your concerns. Together we can WIN.

To conclude dear friends

YOU ARE IN THE RIGHT COUNTRY-INDIA,

WITH THE RIGHT FACILITATOR –THE EEPC

AND I AM SURE TODAY YOU WILL FIND THE RIGHT BUSINESS PARTNER .

With these words I once again welcome you ,wish you a fruitful Business meet and a pleasant stay in India.

I thank you all for a patient hearing.