The 1st IISS-Citi India Global Forum
India as a Rising Great Power:
Challenges and Opportunities
New Delhi, 18–20 April 2008
OPENING RECEPTION
Dr ManmohanSingh, Prime Minister of India
Speaking to a group of delegates to the IISS-Citi Conference in New Delhi, the Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh said:
“India is on the move. I invite you to be partners in India’s progress.
John Maynard Keynes used to say that investment is an act of faith. I invite you to have faith in India. India has followed a successful strategy of re-integrating into the world economy. Globalisation is both a challenge and an opportunity and India would like to be an active participant in the processes of globalisation.
The policy of liberalisation we started in 1991 has moved forward despite changes in Government in New Delhi over the past 17 years. Different political parties have come to power in Delhi, but none has reversed the direction of policy we initiated in 1991. India is today more globally integrated and is confident about its future.
We remain committed to economic reform and liberalisation. It is said that in ancient India a monarch was regarded as a good King if he did not interfere too much in the life of the people. That has been our guiding principle as well. To create an environment of freedom in which the creativity and enterprise of our people can find its full and free expression. I invite you to invest in India and stay invested, because for India the best is yet to come.”
