Address by the Italian Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ms Margherita Boniver
               

Minister Sinha,
High Representative Solana,
Commissioner Patten,
Presidents Muthiah and Mahindra
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen

I am very glad to be here today to participate in the fourth “EU-India Business Summit”,  which is not only an important occasion for the meeting between the European and Indian businessmen, but also an instrument to underline the importance of the partnership which has now gone beyond the purely economic domain.

In a few weeks we will celebrate the first decade of Indo-European political dialogue. It was in fact in 1994 that the bilateral relations took a quantum leap, with the signing of the Joint Statement on political dialogue that paved the way for the first EU-India Summit in the year 2000 at Lisbon.  Since then two more bilateral Summits have taken place, at New Delhi and Copenhagen, consolidating this newly found political equations. A series of economic agreements were signed in the 70s and 80s.

Yet, and here I come to the prehistory of business summits – the origins of this fraternal relationship are tied closely to economic factors.  The European Union is grateful to India for having been, as far as 40 years ago, one of the first countries to believe in our dream, by according diplomatic recognition to what was then a 6-nation European Economic Community. It is true that when the first Ambassador to the EEC, Dr. K.B. Lall, arrived in Brussels in the early sixties, his main mandate was to ensure favourable trade conditions for India from the EEC members. But one cannot but praise the farsightedness of New Delhi in betting its stakes on a horse that had just made its maiden entry on the turf. Ambassador Lall, a brilliant diplomat, negotiated a successful trade agreement with the EEC which became the forerunner of the more comprehensive protocols signed in the 70s and 80s. He also set the pattern for the subsequent agreements that the EEC later signed with other Asian Countries.

Today Europe continues to respect, as it did then, India’s articulate proficiency in commercial diplomacy, which recently made it emerge as a leader in the WTO context. We believe that we must transcend the contrasting views of “failure” and ‘success” that have emerged in the two camps in the immediate aftermath of the Cancun round. We think that by listening to India’s voice we can understand better the aspirations of large communities of people who have much to contribute to the growth of the world in its entirety.

This Business Summit is important and it is so on at least three counts.

It is important because it follows in the steps of the new economic dialogue which led last year to the industry recommendations under the first round of the “EU India Joint Initiative for enhancing Trade and Investment”.

It is important because it precedes the Political Summit and therefore it sets the tone and atmosphere for a large dialogue that will steer the two partners’ future course of action.

Lastly, it is important because it comes on the heels of a WTO round that spelt clear and loud the need to reflect deeply on “where do we go hereafter”. Our business communities have an important role to play: on the one hand, to clarify among each other the irritants and obstacles that stand in the way of a more fruitful and harmonious cooperation; on the other hand, to demonstrate that the rationale of “mutual interest” can still prevail in the ground reality of bilateral business even as agreement on the larger framework is pending at the multilateral headquarters.

Our bilateral framework is in place. Our joint think-tanks have earmarked several sectors for enhanced cooperation in trade and investment, which include Food Processing, Engineering, Telecommunication and Information Technology as well as Financial Services, Power and Energy, Textiles and Biotechnology.

As for trade, we are proud to say that EU- India trade stood its ground in the uneasy global climate of the last two years: the European Union remains India’s largest trading partner, claiming nearly 22 per cent of India’s exports and over 20 per cent of total Indian imports in the year 2002-03. As per the latest figures available, total trade between EU and India increased marginally from 25 billion  $ in 2001 to $ almost 26 billion in 2002, registering a growth of 2.8%.

In the area of investments, the figures of the European Commission show that the EU share in India’s FDI approvals during January 1991 to May 2002 is little over 25%. During this period, actual FDI inflows from EU were to the tune of $ 4.09 billion, which accounts for 13.5% of total FDI inflow into India, as against a US share of 10.37%. But we both have a long way to go before we can truly say that Europe has re-discovered that India which Columbus was looking for in the first place. We trust that India’s newly found feel-good mantra shall unveil the full potential it promises.

Friends, the enlarged EU population together with that of India make a stunning figures of almost 1.5 billion people. It makes eminent sense for our people and businesses to utilise fully the enormous potential that resides in these numbers, which, we must remember, do not represent mere mathematics but the living expression of the two largest democratic systems in the world.

Thank you.