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I am delighted to be here with you, Chancellor
Merkel, at the Inaugural Session of the Indo-German
Business Summit. I know you share my enthusiasm for
closer business and trade relations between our two
countries. This Business Summit, and the various
events organized in the Hannover Industrial Fair,
offer an excellent opportunity for our business
communities to forge useful linkages. They also
provide a new impetus to our bilateral commercial
engagement. I look forward, Excellency, to working
closely with you in taking Indo-German relations to
a higher level of cooperation.
I would like to thank the Hannover Fair authorities
for their excellent arrangements and gracious
hospitality. It is an honour for India to be here
once again, after 21 years, as a Partner Country.
India and Germany have longstanding and enduring
cultural, social and economic relations. There is
enormous respect for German enterprise and
creativity in India. Today, Germany is the 6th
largest foreign investor in India and most major
German companies are already in India, and doing
well. Several have become market leaders in their
areas of operation. Several Indian subsidiaries of
prominent German companies have out-performed the
German parent companies. This has created a good
basis for cooperative engagement between our
businesses. While the bigger German firms have been
present in India for a long time and know India
well, the German Mittelstand has also played an
important role. We seek a closer engagement with
this crucial sector. In this context, I would like
to recognize the excellent work that the
German-India Round Table has done in promoting this
objective.
It is because of all your good work that businesses
in both our countries have a positive view of each
other. I was heartened to see that a recent survey
of German business leaders showed that more than 80
per cent of German companies are aware of the huge
potential of the Indian market. I believe 65 per
cent of German manufacturing companies already have
a presence in India and another 30 per cent plan to
come there. This is a good augury for expanded
cooperation between us in future.
As I said yesterday at the inauguration of the
Hannover Messe, the fundamentals of the Indian
economy are strong and robust. We are confident of
sustaining our high economic performance and growth
rates of 8%. Indeed, we aim to raise this to the
8-10% bracket in the near future. Indian firms are
becoming globally competitive and we are witnessing
the rise of Indian multinationals. India has become
a production base and an export hub for a range of
products from agricultural goods to automobile
components to high end and IT enabled services.
Indian firms are now part of global production
chains – importing, sub-assembling, adding value and
re-exporting. The Indian Pavillion at the Hannover
Messe is, as we have just seen, a good
representative sample of Indian skills today.
Today, corporations from all over the world are
establishing themselves in India. They seek to take
advantage of the pool of high quality scientific
talent and skilled work force in the manufacturing
and services sectors. There is immense scope for
Indo-German Cooperation based on the triad of
infrastructure development, manufacturing and high
technology. Many German companies in India have
successfully leveraged the advantage India offers to
set up R & D facilities and business process
outsourcing operations. Other corporations are also
increasingly aware of the enormous opportunities
that a market of over a billion consumers offers, in
the long run. Consequently, it is no surprise that
German companies are planning to expand their
operations in India and make India their
manufacturing hub for the region. This is smart
strategic planning. I welcome it!
I offer my warm felicitations to the Indo-German
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which is
celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, and the
Indo-German Consultative Group. You have made a
remarkable contribution in promoting the economic
partnership between our two countries. I wish you
success in all your future endeavours.
I would like to wish this Business Summit all
success.
Hannover
April 24, 2006 |
