Remarks by Mr. Vinod K Jacob, Charge d’ Affaires at the meeting with Vice Governor of Hainan Provincial Government, H.E. Mr. Li Guoliang in Beijing, 8 August 2015
08/08/2015

Remarks by Mr. Vinod K Jacob, Charge d’ Affaires at the meeting with Vice Governor of Hainan Provincial Government

Excellency, I am very happy to meet with you and your delegation this morning.

Strengthening relations with China in allspheres is a priority in India’s foreign policy.

Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s highlyproductive and positive visit to China from May 14-16 has opened a new chapterin our relations. The results achieved were impressive: 24 agreements signed onthe government-to-government side, 26 MoUs on the business-to-business side andtwo joint statements, including one on climate change.

The strength of our economic partnership couldbe gauged from the business events in Shanghai on 16 May.

Prime Minister interacted with 21 CEOs ofleading Chinese companies and the response was so positive that the meetingwent far longer than scheduled. Over 40 prominent Indian CEOs attended theBusiness Forum along with their counterparts from China.

The 26 business understandings worth over US$22 billion signed at the Forum covered such varied sectors as industrial parks,renewable energy, thermal energy, telecommunication, steel, capital goods, ITand media.

Besides, there was a clear consensus among theleaders of the two countries on correcting the existing imbalance in thebilateral trade and injecting sustainability into it. With this in mind, theyagreed to establish a high-powered task force that will go into issues relatingto the trade deficit as well as expansion of economic engagement.

The significance of cooperation with provincesof China is acknowledged. This fits in with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’sconcept of “cooperative federalism” and is reflected in greater interactionsand exchanges at the states and provinces level as well as in the new mechanismof sister city and sister province cooperation.

I am also happy to inform my friends fromHainan that we have launched e-tourist visas for Chinese nationals travelling toIndia for tourism. Chinese friends who want to travel to India for recreation,sightseeing, casual visit to meet friends or relatives, short duration medicaltreatment or casual business visit can avail of this facility. This is animportant initiative of the Government of India to encourage tourist flowsduring the Visit India Year in China in 2015.

I am happy to hear that NASSCOM and HainanGovernment have decided to partner with each other. This is a demonstration ofthe benefits that cooperation in the IT field can bring to both sides.

I am also confident that Hainan Government,and Vice Governor personally will encourage more and more people and businessesfrom his province to visit India, invest in India and contribute to ‘Make inIndia.’

Before I conclude I would like to place onrecord our appreciation for the good work done by NASSCOM in the past 25 years.

Excellency, as you can see, we also haverepresentatives from some of the major Indian IT companies present here today.

I now request Mr. Gagan Sabharwal, Director,Global Trade Development, NASSCOM to give his remarks.

Thank you.