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.