Washington, June 12: Though there are large areas of 'convergence and divergence' between the India and US, both the countries have underlined that there is a vast potential for further cooperation in the fields of commerce, industry, investment and services and the problems facing both sides as they try to realise it. "There are between the two countries large areas of convergence as well as divergence but they can work together for better relations with one representing the world's largest economy and the other the economy of one-sixth of the world's population whose gross domestic product in purchasing power parity terms is the world's fourth largest,” Union Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley said here yesterday.
Jaitley was speaking during the relaunch of the US-India commercial dialogue, an institutional arrangement established by President Clinton and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, during Clinton's memorable Delhi visit, by the US-India Business Council, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Confederation of Indian Industry.
The dialogue, he said, enables both to understand each other's positions better and there is need to increase the frequency of these dialogues.
Jaitley said he has just come back from a very fruitful session with US Secretary of Commerce Don Evans. It enabled them to further appreciate each other's positions. Both he and the US Secretary feel that even though the US is India's largest trading partner, their volumes of trade could be much higher.
Jaitley pointed out that the nature of the trade between the two countries has changed. Not only does India expect investments from the US to enter India, but investment by Indian businesses in the US is also now taking place.
It companies from India have a very sizeable presence here. Indian pharmaceutical companies have made very important acquisitions in the United States. Indian personnel transmit their services to the US electronically. Today, said Jaitley, "we have reached a situation where India has developed a vast resource of knowledge”.
“Our human resources in terms of knowledge of various kinds are indeed very large. The strength of Indian professionals is going to increase year after year and this is indeed enabling India to make its presence felt in various economies,” he added.
India's investment environment, said Jaitley, is indeed very friendly and her market is huge. India now has an intellectual property rights regime that is internationally compatible. India has large resources of knowledge personnel and both skilled and unskilled labour.
The spirit of competitiveness has gone into Indian businesses, in trade, in manufacturing and in services. In fact, this was responsible for last year's increase in India's exports by 18 per slowdown of the global economy, he said.
Over the last decade, India has consistently managed respectable growth rates averaging six per cent. Indian society has started finding the benefits of reforming the regime of controls. India is, therefore, engaged with both the US and other large economies in increasing trade, he added.
However, Jaitley said that there are several areas in which the economies of developing countries like India have sensitive concerns. Bureau Report