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PM takes in Shanghai`s economic and technological miracle
Shanghai, June 26: Politics took a back seat and the focus was on a Sino-Indian alliance of a different kind as Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today saw for himself Shanghai`s economic and technological miracle, a day prior to his return home from his six-day official visit to China.
It was slightly foggy but that had little impact on the Indian leader's enthusiasm as he asked questions about the economic zone located over an area of 522 square kilometers.
The zone is an exclusive club with only foreign trade corporations with an export performance of US $100 million a year being allowed to set up base there.
From there, Vajpayee drove to the Shanghai International
Convention Centre to address a day-long seminar on challenges and opportunities in the IT sector for India and China.
Leading lights of Indian IT industry and their Chinese counterparts were present as was Han Zheng, Shanghai's mayor.
It was at this function that the Prime Minister proposed an "effective alliance" between the two countries in the information technology industry pointing out that India's core competence in software and china's in hardware would be complementary. This would help them face the challenge of a "digital divide" from the regional imbalances in access to technologies.
In the evening, Vajpayee and his top aides drove a short distance for a meeting with the secretary of the Chinese communist party in Shanghai Chen Liangyu, who hosted a banquet in honour of the Indian leader. A cruise on Huang Pu River was the last public engagement on his schedule.
Before flying back to Delhi tomorrow afternoon, the Prime Minister is likely to address a press conference which will UN doubtedly be dominated by questions on the outcome of his discussions with the Chinese leadership in Beijing, highlighted by the first-ever bilateral joint declaration and a border trade agreement that have addressed sensitive issues like the border dispute, Sikkim and Tibet.
Bureau Report