Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and German Chancellor kicked off the inaugural session of the second Indo-German Business Summit at the Hannover trade fair on Monday.
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The two leaders had officially inaugurated the fair, the word's largest, on Sunday evening. India is the official partner for this year's fair. Earlier on Monday, they went on a 'walkabout' through the India stall, a massive complex at stall number 6.
In his remarks, Dr Singh said the business summit and the various events organized at the Hannover Industrial fair offer an excellent opportunity for our two business communities to forge useful linkages.
Thanking the fair authorities for 'their excellent arrangement gracious hospitality,' he said, "It is an honor for India to be here once again, after 21 years, as a partner country. India and Germany have longstanding and enduring cultural social and economic relations. There is enormous respect for German enterprise and creativity in India. Today, Germany is the 6th largest foreign investor in India and most major companies are already in India and doing very well."
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He then went on to say that the fundamentals of the Indian economy were strong and robust.
"We are confident of sustaining our high economic performance and growth rates of 8 per cent. Indeed, we aim to raise this to the 8 to 10 per cent bracket in the near future. Indian firms are becoming globally competitive and we are witnessing the rise of Indian multinationals. India has become a production base and an export hub for a range of products from agricultural goods to automobiles components to high end and IT enabled services," he said, adding, "Indian firms are now a part of global production chains, importing, sub-assembling, adding value and re-exporting.
"The Indian pavilion at the Hannover Messe is, as we have just seen, a good representative sample of Indian skills today," he said, noting that 'today, corporations from all over the world were establishing themselves in India' to take advantage of the pool of high quality scientific talent and skilled work force in the manufacturing and services sectors.
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"There is immense scope for the Indo-German cooperation based on the triad of infrastructure development, manufacturing and high technology. Consequently, It is no surprise that German companies are planning to expand their operations in India and make India their manufacturing hub for the region. This is smart strategic planning. I welcome it," Dr Singh said.
