Speeches and Remarks 2006
Remarks by Robert O. Blake Charge D'Affaires, American Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting May 1, 2006, New Delhi
Thanks a lot, Amrit, for those very well chosen remarks, and let me say I am very-very pleased to be here for AMCHAM's 14th annual meeting. I am so pleased to see so many friends here in the audience.
It is a particular pleasure to welcome Under Secretary Lavin and, as Amrit said, I will be introducing him in a second. First, let me just say I bring the warm greetings of Ambassador David Mulford. He was very sorry he couldn't be here today. As many of you know, he is in the United States where he has been meeting with members of Congress and others to promote the civil nuclear deal, and he gave a very important speech last week -- in fact, last Monday -- at the American Enterprise Institute. But he will be back later this week, and again, he sends his very warm regards and his thanks to all of you who have done so much to help promote the relationship here.
The annual general meeting provides a good opportunity to reflect on our considerable successes over the last year but also on the way forward for us. I think that the last twelve months will probably be remembered as some of the most significant an Indo-U.S. relations. Of course, the highlights were the Prime Minister's visit to the United States in July, and then -- perhaps even more -- President Bush's historic visit here in March almost two months ago. These visits culminated in a series of very important new initiatives in our relations, including of course the Civil Nuclear Initiative, the Agriculture Knowledge Initiative and the Science and Technology Commission, all of which were announced by the President and the Prime Minister. Each of these are going to have potentially far reaching implications for our trade and investment coalitions.
On the nuclear side, Secretary Rice has noted that India plans to import eight new nuclear reactors by 2012. If American companies win just two of those contracts, it will mean thousands of new jobs and hundreds of millions of new exports for American companies. We also plan to expand our civilian nuclear partnership to research and development, drawing on India's technological expertise, to promote a global renaissance in nuclear power.
On the agricultural side, an important aspect to the Agricultural Knowledge Partnership is to enhance the role of the private sector in India's agricultural sector, so that private investment can help play an important role in improving infrastructure in developing the cold chains and overcoming the other obstacles that currently plague Indian agriculture.
On the S&T side, if there is any one issue and any one area that truly defines our partnership now, I think it is in science and technology, because it really underlines the future promise of greater technological cooperation in research development between our two knowledge-based economies. We think that there is going to be great promise in a huge range of areas in science and technology from things like defense research to nanotechnology, biotechnology, agriculture, and the list goes on and on and on.
One key to the improvement, and in greater American investment, will be a much improved IPR regime here in India. Last week, as you know, we inaugurated with the Confederation of Indian Industry a very important partnership to try to increase awareness about intellectual property rights (IPR) here in India to build on the very important patent law that was passed in 2004. The challenge now I think is to improve enforcement and to build awareness so that American companies will truly have the confidence to come here, and know that there is a world class IPR regime in place here.
Last year also saw major progress in building bilateral institutions to remove remaining obstacles, and create the necessary climate for rapid expansion of trade and investment here. Those include the Economic Dialogue, the Trade Policy Forum, the Energy Dialogue and many other cabinet-level platforms. I should also mention that the CEO Forum and the Prime Minister's and President's announcement of that is a major step forward because we are including the views of the private sector and indeed, allowing those to really inform almost every thing that we do. All of this is having results.
I remember when I first came here in 2003, Ambassador Blackwill, who was our Ambassador at that time, used to joke that trade and investment was as flat as a chapatti between India and the United States, and that was true at that time. But I must say I am happy to say that things have really changed for the better since then. In the last two years, American exports to India have grown by 22 percent, and then 30 percent, and Indian exports have grown by 19 and 20 percent over that same period. Growth has been broad. 95 percent of U.S. exports by product category have experienced growth over that time period, and foreign direct investment (FDI) is also growing, but not by the same pace, for some of the reasons that I will outline.
It is also a time to talk about some of the challenges ahead. We have, as Amrit said, set ourselves a very ambitious task of doubling our exports over the next three years, and we think that is certainly a goal that is within our reach, particularly if India continues to lower tariffs, if it opens up key sectors such as retail -- that could really have a very important, positive impact on our trade and investment here, and if it lowers the tariff and non-tariff barriers that continue to inhibit American exports to this country.
American companies also are interested in investing more in India, but face obstacles that all of you know very well. Poor infrastructure, investment restrictions in many areas -- as Amrit outlined, stringent labor laws, bureaucratic red tape, and inadequate IPR protection. But I am confident that we are going to overcome these obstacles, particularly with the help of so many friends like you and with institutions like the American Chamber of Commerce.
Indeed, I really want to commend AMCHAM and the leadership of the board led by Amrit Kiran Singh, but all of the members of the board, for your persistent and well informed and strong support of our endeavors here, and your strong support for American exports and American investment.
Now it is my pleasure to introduce our featured speaker here today, Under Secretary Franklin Lavin. He was sworn in as our Under Secretary for International Trade in November last year. Before that, as many of you know, he was our Ambassador to Singapore from 2001 to 2005. He was considered a very energetic promoter of American exports and American investment there, and indeed led a trade mission while he was Ambassador, to India to see what more we could do between our AMCHAM's and between our two governments. Before serving as U.S. Ambassador to Singapore, he was a successful investment banker and venture capitalist in both Hong Kong and Singapore, and before that, he had a number of high-level jobs both in the White House and in the Department of Commerce and in the other parts of United States government.
So I think he is uniquely well-placed to lead our international trade efforts in the second Bush Administration. He is both a successful private businessman and somebody who has a proven record in government, as well. So it is my great pleasure to introduce to you Under Secretary Frank Lavin.