Singapore invites India to join with Asian tigers
Singapore invites India to join with Asian tigers
CALCUTTA (Reuter): Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong urged India yesterday to join an Asian free trade alliance and pursue reforms so it could outstrip Britain and Germany in economic strength by 2010.
"I suggest that India join forces with Asian countries which are advocating free trade," he told an international business conference to mark the centenary of the Confederation of Indian Industry, a leading industry association.
India's economy could grow to match those of major European nations if it keeps at its reforms, Goh said.
"Even at seven percent growth per annum, India's economy will be significantly larger than the combined size of Britain and Germany by 2010," he said.
"But if India fails to open up quickly enough, it risks being sidelined in the race to prosperity."
The liberalization would involve a lowering of tariff walls and a welcome to foreign competition, which could combine well with India's scientific and entrepreneurial skills, he said.
Goh, leading a 60-member business delegation on a three-day visit to the eastern port city, also invited India to join an Asian alliance to check western protectionism, which he said was a response to Asian growth.
"Some quarters in the west may want protection," Goh said in response to a question. "This is where we need to create summits between the Americas and Asian countries."
East Asia
Goh asked India to tap the boom in East Asia, expected to generate 40 percent of the world's new purchasing power and new import demand over the next decade.
"By the year 2010, East Asia should account for a third of global output," Goh said.
This growth, combined with the coming together of 18 nations of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum to lower trade barriers by 2020, offered scope for India, he said.
But it was not possible for India to join an economic bloc led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) during the next decade, he said.
In 1991, Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao launched an economic reform program that has cut a deep swathe of liberalization through the state-controlled economy.
"If India perseveres in its reforms and opens itself up quickly to foreign competition and markets, it will share in the wave of prosperity that is sweeping across Asia," Goh said.
Among India's strengths, Goh identified its qualified managers, the use of English and the flourishing capital market and private sector that grew alongside socialist controls.
"With the freeing of the economy, there is no reason why India, with the advantage of these fundamental strengths, should not grow by at least seven percent per annum in future," Goh said.
"China, which began liberalizing 12 years before India, has since grown by nine percent on average."
He said there were fears India must allay.
"Many potential investors in India are holding back because they are unsure whether the commitment to reform is deep-seated and widely supported across party lines, and because many rules are not transparent," he said.