Former Prime Minister of India - Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee

PRIME MINISTER SHRI ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE'S SPEECH AT BUSINESS MEETING IN TOKYO

~Thank you for providing me the opportunity to address this distinguished gathering of business leaders from Japan and India. It is significant that six of the most prestigious economic and industrial organizations of Japan are together hosting this meeting. I deeply appreciate your initiative.

I am especially delighted to be back in Tokyo. This great city has always possessed an exuberant energy and an exceptional effervescence. As I walked around the streets of Japan many years ago, I had experienced its dynamic vitality. The same is palpable again today, notwithstanding the current problems facing the Japanese economy.

If Japan is today the richest nation in Asia, and has earned this distinction despite its relative paucity in natural resources, it is thanks to the relentless drive and determination of its people, and to their fabled spirit of innovation and enterprise. We have confidence in the resilience of the Japanese economy and in the genius of the Japanese people to constantly explore the frontiers of the future. I have no doubt that you will summon these qualities again and, responding correctly to the new global economic and geo-political environment, enable the Japanese economy to regain its vigour and momentum.

My visit to Japan is an important part of India’s expanding relationship with the Asia-Pacific region. In this, we attach special value to our ties with Japan, not only because of our centuries-old spiritual links and cultural affinities, but also from a mature understanding of our strategic convergences, regional and global interests, and economic potential.

We have a common stake in defending and promoting the ideals of democracy, pluralism and peace. Security in Asia, safety of the energy assets and ocean routes, which are so vital for the economies of the Asia-Pacific, are a matter of common concern to both of us.

Our partnership is also rooted in the many complementarities in our two economies. And these are growing inexorably. Today Japanese investments can, to a significant extent, address our diverse developmental needs. Similarly, the expanding business opportunities in India can help stimulate growth in the currently recession-hit Japanese economy.

However, the alliance between India and Japan cannot have furtherance of our respective and mutual interests as its sole aim. Together with our relationships with other countries, we should actively promote the universal goals of freedom from want, freedom from fear, and mutual understanding between the peoples of the world.

Major challenges before any strategy for achieving faster economic growth are protection of the environment, promotion of family values, and preservation of diverse cultural traditions around the world. In their absence, higher standards of living would not translate into lives worth living. Although all nations are confronted with this challenge, I believe that India and Japan’s cultural heritage have something to give to the rest of the world in this aspect.

These being the irrefutable imperatives before us, I ask myself a simple question: If we do not strengthen the natural friendship between India and Japan into a partnership with a purpose in the 21st century now, when else are we going to do it?

The time to take new and bold initiatives is now. The fruits of these initiatives may not be visible now, but perhaps after a decade. Our future generations will judge that we did the right thing by forging, in the initial years of this century, a substantive global partnership between our two countries.

This is the vision that guides me in my dialogue with the governmental and political leaders of your country. And this is the vision that I present before you today. I do so out of my firm belief that harnessing the largely untapped potential of business and economic cooperation between India and Japan is the first and foremost task in our global partnership. Our two governments and our two business communities have to work together to fulfill this task.

My ministerial colleagues and senior officers might have already briefed you on the many measures that our Government has taken to further reform India’s economy. These reforms have created substantial new opportunities for investment, trade and business collaborations.

I am aware of the problems and bottlenecks that foreign investors face in India. The central and state governments in India have been making continuous efforts to address these. I welcome your suggestions and ideas in this regard and assure you that these will be given serious consideration.

What I wish to emphasise is that great projects are accomplished when we focus not on difficulties alone, but on their solutions through joint action. They are accomplished by fixing our sights on the future benefits to be realized, and not only on the past problems.

In this context, let me present a few specific ideas for the economic and business partnership between India and Japan for your consideration.

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the commencement of diplomatic relations between our two countries. Let us use this opportunity to flag off a few Signature Projects that are jointly funded, mutually beneficial, and are ambitious enough to symbolize our resolve to forge a global partnership in the new century.

Today there is a convergence between Japan’s investment surplus and India’s developmental needs. We could create innovative ways of channeling your large-scale and long-gestation investments, with prospects of higher returns than they earn today.

In this, India could use Japan’s considerable under-utilised industrial capacities, and human capabilities. We wish to especially benefit from your proven strengths in infrastructure construction, energy management, food management and total quality management.

Similarly, you could utilize India’s talented IT professionals in large numbers to address the needs of restructuring of your economy, including R&D of the next generation technologies.

You can also benefit by tapping India’s large and well-trained pool of knowledge workers through joint R&D in biotechnology, bio-informatics, embedded software, optics, new materials, and new energy technologies.

As a part of this restructuring exercise, your economy could gain significantly by relocating the design, development and manufacturing units of your large and medium companies in India, wherever our country offers comparative advantages. Here, I can hardly overemphasise the advantage of operating in a country of one billion consumers and an economy that is among the fastest growing in the world.

Japan has a large and growing population of senior citizens. India can offer diversified health and personal care services to improve the quality of life of your older generation and reduce the cost of insurance and social welfare.

At Osaka, I had referred to our determination to comprehensively develop the Buddhist circuit in India to attract pilgrims and tourists from Japan and other countries. In view of its importance to our shared vision for the future, I wish to repeat it here. I invite Japanese companies to participate in this effort, which, I assure you, will receive full facilitation from my Government.

I have no doubt that the cumulative effect of all these initiatives will be beneficial to both India and Japan. At the same time, it will also serve as a model of partnership between a large developing economy and a major developed economy in today’s era of globalisation.

What is the goal of globalisation that all of us in government, business, and civil society should work towards? I can do no better than to recall the following lines from Rabindranath Tagore, the great Indian poet who was also a great admirer of Japan. Written in the closing years of the 19th century, they are even more appropriate to our inter-dependent world in the 21st century.

~Deep is my desire

In country after country to identify

Myself with all men; to be born

As an Arab child in the desert, fearless and free,

Raised on camel’s milk; to explore

Cold stone mansions, Buddhist monasteries

On Tibet’s plateau; to drink grape-wine

As a Persian in a rose-garden; to ride

Horses as an intrepid Tartar; to toil

with dedication as in the ancient Chinese land;

to be polite and vigorous as a Japanese;

to experience existence in all homes.~

I too salute the legendary ~polite and vigorous~ character of the Japanese people.

Thank you.~