President Pranab Mukherjee was given a rousing welcome by Chinese officials as he landed in Beijing on the second of a four-day visit to China. Earlier in the day, he wrapped up his visit to Guangzhou, capital of China’s richest province, Guangdong by laying continual emphasis on improvement of trade and business ties between India and China.
Mr. Mukherjee invited Chinese investors to expand their foreign direct investment to India, “which presents a promising demographic scenario ..” and has embarked upon a steady economic growth rate trajectory. While the trade deficit between the two countries was a concern, “India would like to see a greater market for our products … in IT and IT-related services, pharmaceuticals and drugs and agro-products.. in China”, he said. He welcomed more investments and said that the Indian government “will facilitate ..efforts to make [Chinese] investments in India profitable”. Mr Mukherjee was addressing a China-India business forum that comprised of representatives from the Indian and Chinese business community and the governor of Guangdong province, Zhu Xiaodan when he made these remarks.
Following the speech, Mr. Mukherjee visited the historic Hua Lin temple that is believed to have been built after the arrival of Indian monk Bodhidharma in 526 AD – who later on founded Zen Buddhism in China. He later met up with the Communist Party of China’s party secretary of the Guangdong province Hu Chunhua at a lunch meeting. Broadly three issues were discussed: economic ties and issues related to trade and investment; cultural relations and China’s federal system.
Mr. Mukherjee briefed Mr. Hu about the various initiatives that have been taken in India in the past year to facilitate trade, investment and faster growth, in particular flagship schemes such as “Digital India”, Smart City projects, and the Make in India project. The president also spoke about how steps were being taken to ease foreign direct investment in India. Mr. Hu told Mr. Mukherjee that Guangdong had increasingly become a major port of call for Indian traders and businesspeople and that after Japan and South Korea, Indians comprised the third largest business community in the province. Mr. Hu said that he was confident about greater engagement and enhancement of ties between Guangdong (the richest province in China) and India. Initiatives such as sister-province relationship, for example between Gujarat and Guangdong which was established in 2014 were also discussed in the meeting.
Mr. Hu also briefed Mr. Mukherjee about federal relations in China and the range of powers available to provincial authorities. He spoke about how both the centre and the provinces shared power and participated in developmental initiatives.
Mr. Mukherjee’s visit to the Hua Lin temple was also received well by the Guangdong party secretary who emphasised the historical cultural ties between India and China and Guangdong’s role in it.
Mr. Mukherjee concluded the meeting by saying that India was growing at 7.5% - 8% presently and wished to continue this growth momentum for the next 25 years. The Guangdong party secretary registered his support for this endeavour.
