President speech at India-Cambodia meeting

India Blooms News Service

Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Sept 16 (IBNS) Indian President Pratibha Patil addressed the India-Cambodia Business Meeting here on Wednesday.

I am delighted to be amongst the captains of business communities of our two countries. At the outset, I would like to thank the President of the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce for organizing this event. The Indian business delegation consists of representatives from Indian companies and from the three major business associations of India namely the Confederation of Indian Industry, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry, reflecting the interest to engage with Cambodia. Today's meeting offers an opportunity for business persons from both countries to interact and explore business potentials.

India and Cambodia have deep civilizational links and a time-tested friendship. Our peoples have known each other for more than two thousand years. Our ancestors exchanged ideas and techniques, and created such architectural marvels that are now termed as the wonders of the world. Indian traders sailed to this region, playing an important role in not only establishing trading links, but also in promoting people to people contacts. Those ancient friendly ties which continued for many centuries, once again flourished in the era of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Prince Norodom Sihanouk, which saw an upswing in political interaction, not only on the bilateral platform, but also in the international arena. After the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, India was among the first countries to re-establish its diplomatic Mission in Phnom Penh in 1981. Since then, our two countries have worked together to bolster bilateral ties covering almost all sectors. Prime Minister Hun Sen's visit to India in 2007 and my interaction with the leadership of Cambodia during my visit not only reconfirms the time-tested bonds but is a desire to further strengthen our friendship. A background of such a rich interaction accompanied by a strong commitment by the leadership of the two countries to promote ties, provides numerous opportunities for businesspersons to forge trade and investment linkages.

It is worth mentioning that India and Cambodia started the process of economic liberalization in the 1990s - almost at the same time. Since then, the pace of economic growth in both countries has accelerated. Cambodia figured among an exclusive group of countries to achieve double digit growth in its GDP for a few years in a row, prior to the global economic crisis. India was one of the few countries where the impact of the global economic downturn was limited. This was largely on account of Indian economic growth being propelled by domestic consumption. India is trillion dollar economy and is ranked as the fourth largest economy in the world on the basis of purchasing power parity. India is a large, attractive and a growing market.

Ladies and Gentlemen, vIndia-Cambodia economic relations are at a modest level but there exists much greater scope for expansion. Total bilateral trade is approximately US$ 50 million with pharmaceuticals being the dominating item of India's export basket. I am certain it is possible to expand the bilateral trade basket, which requires initiatives to create awareness among the business communities of the two countries about the quality and prices of exportable goods and import requirements. In order to promote trade with Cambodia, India has extended a duty free tariff preference facility since last year. I encourage the Cambodian business community to avail of this facility in full at an accelerated pace.

Indian companies have invested overseas and are looking for opportunities to do more business. Frequent business interactions will help in identifying the many investment opportunities in mining, oil and gas, hydropower, infrastructure, tourism, among others. Moreover, in the economies of both India and Cambodia, agriculture continues to play an important role. I am told that the Royal Government of Cambodia is exploring ways to improve agriculture productivity, as well as to transform Cambodia into a rice basket and a key rice exporting country in the world. We welcome these initiatives of the Cambodian Government and I can assure that India would cooperate and share its experience with Cambodia in achieving this objective. India would be happy to extend training support and also depute Indian experts to Cambodia under bilateral co-operation arrangements. I am informed that trade and investment opportunities in the agriculture sector have also generated a lot of interest among reputed Indian business companies. I am hopeful that the current visits by some of them would fructify into actual business transactions.

India has a strong presence of small and medium enterprises, which have been in operation for many centuries. I believe Cambodia is keen to expand its manufacturing base to add value to its local agro-produce and also for other products to meet local demand. These sectors, alongwith IT and IT enabled services, could be areas which are worth exploring. I am glad that an Indian bank - Bank of India - is now operating in Cambodia. This should help facilitate business between the two countries.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Cambodia's central location in the ASEAN region is useful as India seeks to expand its economic engagement with the region. We are also helped by the fact that for Indians, South East Asia is an important travel destination. In this context, I would like to mention that India-Cambodia tourism trade has tremendous potential for expansion. I am also told that a large number of Cambodian tourists travel to India for pilgrimage purposes. Such visits boost our tourism business and people to people contacts. One of the best catalysts to promote tourist traffic between the two countries would be the establishment of a direct air link between India and Cambodia. This would open possibilities of attractive tour packages, and also significantly reduce travel time.

Cambodia is a country with which we have historical ties and there exists an abundance of goodwill for India at all strata of society. Therefore, I urge my own compatriots to share their experiences learnt over the years and play a positive role in the development of Cambodia. There exists tremendous scope for developing trade and investment relations between India and Cambodia, which should be realized by businesspersons of the two countries.

I wish you good luck and success in this endeavour.

Thank You.