The 1st IISS-Citi India Global Forum
India as a Rising Great Power:
Challenges and Opportunities
New Delhi, 18–20 April 2008
DINNER ADDRESS
Q&A
Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce & Industry, India
Questions & Answers
(Provisional Transcript)
Dr Tim Huxley
Minister, towards the end of your speech you mentioned the problem of poverty in India, with 300 million people still living on less than $1 a day. I wondered whether you had any ideas about what sort of policies might make a practical difference in terms of reducing the incidence of poverty, which is clearly one of the factors that is holding back India from achieving even greater economic success in the medium to long term?
Kamal Nath
One of the biggest challenges when I talk of 300 million people living on less than $1 a day is in rural India, in our agricultural sector. There are 650 million people engaged in agriculture, which is not commerce, which is subsistence. Agriculture, which is livelihood security, agriculture labour. We have to have this great transformation in agriculture, we need to move 200 million people away from agriculture into services and manufacturing. That is our trust. How do we reform agriculture? It is not just investment in agriculture, when you are going to have agriculture on one or two acres of land, no matter what you invest it is not going to work. It is not going to be sustainable.
The government’s focus on rural employment programmes, generating rural jobs, is another major effort. So, I think if we are able to address the issues in rural India, we are able to address the issues of poverty.
Ambassador Robert Blackwill
Minister, I know you have made an enormous effort to do India’s part in finishing the Doha Round successfully. Can this get across the finish line or are the domestic protectionist policies in a variety of countries going to stop it from doing so?
Kamal Nath
What I am most concerned about is the protectionist policies in the US today, which we are hearing sounds about. I will be better able to answer this on 9 May 2008, because I am meeting Susan Schwab on 8 May 2008. I believe that all countries today want to have a rule-based global trading system, on a multilateral basis. We need it, India needs it as much, if not more, than most countries, because as we engage we must have a rule based multilateral system. There are challenges, and I believe that if in the next two months countries respect the sensitivities of other countries – we need to respect the sensitivities in Europe, the US, and Africa. Similarly the developed countries need to respect some sensitivities. We are grappling in this round with some of the most difficult issues of global trade. I am optimistic, because the momentum that has been built up in the last two months, and even in the last two weeks, is heading towards it. We are hoping to have a ministerial meeting towards the third week of May, and I am sure that if countries are determined - because we have seen substantial progress since this time last year. If you look at today and three months ago, there has been substantial progress. We have got to cross that last mile, we have run the race, and everybody has got to touch the tape. I hope we can do it.
Dr John Chipman
Mr Minister, I think that our delegates have recognised that you have very admirably sung for your supper, and therefore you deserve it. On behalf of both the IISS and Citi, thank you very much for your eloquence and you presence here.
