Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

PM's statement at the 4th East Asia Summit

I thank the Prime Minister of Thailand His Excellency Mr. Abhisit Vejjajiva for convening the 4th East Asia Summit and for the excellent arrangements made.

We meet against the backdrop of the global economic and financial slowdown. The G-20 leaders have met thrice, and the coordinated response to address this crisis that has emerged from the G-20 has had some effect. However, it is still too early to say whether we are completely out of trouble. I support PM Rudd's suggestion for a meeting of EAS Finance Ministers to examine sources of growth in the region.

The launching of the EAS process was an act of foresight. It was also an act of faith in our collective potential. Today the world's eyes are on Asia as the region which can lead the global economic revival from the front. The Asian tigers captured the world's attention a few decades ago. Today, six of the twenty members of the G-20 belong to the East Asia Summit.

We must learn lessons from the global economic crisis. One of these is the need to ensure coordination in our growth policies. The other is to keep the real economy strong and sound. We agree with Japan that greater emphasis has to be laid on growth of domestic demand. And the third is to keep the flows of trade, technology and investment open, orderly and predictable. The evolution of the EAS process should conform to our first Declaration issued in Kuala Lumpur which called for the EAS to be an open, inclusive, transparent and outward looking forum. We need to move forward in this direction, and exhibit the requisite political will. Economic integration among us could generate billions of dollars of additional output.

The vision of Asian economic integration by coalescing the Free Trade Agreements among member Asian countries into an Asian Regional Trade Agreement is a pivotal step towards the integration of Asia into a common unit. This can lead to the creation of a broader Asian Economic Community.

Our focus should be on generation of stronger domestic demand in Asian economies through investment in infrastructure, creation and strengthening of the social welfare net, skill development of our workforce and environmentally sustainable and inclusive growth.

India welcomes the recommendations of the Phase II Report on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership in East Asia with regard to the three pillars of economic cooperation, facilitation and liberalisation. An early realisation of its roadmap for economic and financial integration, we believe, would be the right step forward for our grouping.

India is playing its part in this process. We have signed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements with Singapore and the Republic of Korea and recently a Trade in Good Agreements with the ASEAN. We are in discussions with Japan, China, Thailand and Malaysia and other countries to conclude agreements of a similar nature.

The proposals generated by the Economic Research Institute of ASEAN and East Asia [ERIA] to develop a blueprint for financial and economic integration of the EAS region, especially in the area of infrastructure development and connectivity, are promising, and deserve our encouragement. India would be happy to contribute 1 million US dollars over a period of ten years for enlarging the activities of ERIA.

We are greatly encouraged that the Summit will adopt a Statement on the establishment of the Nalanda University in the State of Bihar in India. This has been the product of many months of hard work put in by the Nalanda Mentor Group, and will be a shining example of cooperative action in the field of education. I thank our Singapore colleague for his pioneering zeal in pursuit of this idea.

Climate change is a major challenge facing the world, but it is particularly so for the developing and fast growing economies in Asia. The EAS process should come up with a workable model of sustainable development. Financing and technology transfers are its key elements. The challenge before us is to find a global mechanism which, while safeguarding the incentives for innovation and development of environment friendly technologies in the private sector, also simultaneously ensures the availability of such technology to developing countries at an affordable cost.

Many of our countries face the spectre of terrorism. There are growing threats from non-traditional sources, such as piracy, transnational groups and extremist ideologies. I agree with the President of Indonesia. This will increasingly require a concerted and cooperative response in the coming period. We will have to play greater attention to issues of social exclusion, and regional imbalances in development. The fight against pandemics and collaboration in disaster management are other areas which will need our attention.

The East Asia Summit holds great potential. If we pool our collective wisdom and resources, there is little doubt that the EAS will emerge as an oasis of peace, stability and prosperity in a fast changing world.

Thank you.