INDIAN NEWS QUEENSLAND
Jan 1-15, 2021 - Vol 4, Issue 2
BUSINESS & TRADE
Partnership Summit 2020: CII conducts annual flagship event on digital platform The CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) Partnership Summit, CII’s yearly flagship event was organized for the first time on a virtual platform this year with the theme being “Partnership for lives, livelihood and growth”, from 15th December to 18th December, 2020. The event, which was chaired by Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and Railways, Government of India and cochaired by Uday Kotak, President CII and Managing Director and CEO, Kotak Mahindra Bank, marked a special occasion as CII celebrated its 125th anniversary this year. The Partnership Summit 2020 captured perspectives of leading experts across a wide array of major fields, namely, geopolitical and strategic developments, international trade and multilateralism, economy and finance, investments, technology disruptions, socio-cultural and sustainability aspects, and cooperation in healthcare. Government welcomes industry input for a unique budget Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the government is seeking growthinducing big ideas and inputs derived from introspection by industry, which would be used for creating a ‘budget as never before’. Speaking at the CII Partnership Summit 2020, Sitharaman said that the next Union Budget will help India emerge as the engine for global growth and economic resurgence. The minister noted that health and investment in health would be the top priority for the government in near future. This would entail more funding not only for buildings and infrastructure but also for creating capacities for front line workers such as doctors, technology and skills for use of telemedicine, among others. The budget would take note of all the inputs received from the health sector to take this forward, she said. She further said that India was fortunate to have the facility and capacity to not only produce the vaccine but also export the same for humanity’s sake. She invited private participation to help the health sector scale up, by investing in medicinal R&D, biotech, and pharma R&D, among others. Doors open for greater FDI in India Addressing the inaugural session of CII’s Partnership Summit 2020, Indian Minister of Railways, Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution Piyush Goyal invited foreign investors to be a part of India’s growth story. The Minister said continuing on an open path; India has been systematically
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opening up new sectors of the economy. He said that FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) flows in India have been continuously growing.”During the first nine months of this year, at the peak of Covid-19 pandemic, our FDI has grown. We have one of the most facilitative FDI policies in the world. During the AprilSeptember period, FDI inflows are at $40 billion, which has been higher than last year by about 13 per cent,” he said. In 2019, India announced one of the most attractive tax rates available anywhere in the world at 22 per cent tax for businesses in India and 15 per cent tax for new manufacturing units. Goyal cited that a number of new schemes have been introduced, including ‘Production-Linked Incentive’ scheme to attract industries to come to India.”India is introducing conducive reforms and facilitation measures to encourage greater global involvement in our V-shaped recovery. I invite you to board the bus of development, growth and prosperity that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is crafting for the people of India,” said Goyal. Security, stability and peace in Indo-Pacific vital for world
Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
Speaking on the session “Future Construct of the Indo-Pacific”, at the Partnership Summit 2020, Indian Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar highlighted the global significance of security, stability and peace in the IndoPacific region. Defining the Indo-Pacific construct, he stated that the Indo-Pacific signifies the confluence of the Indian and the Pacific Oceans that can no longer be handled as distinct spheres. Commenting on India’s IndoPacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) which was announced during November 2019 at the East Asia Summit, he asserted that the global initiative aims to foster practical cooperation and is underpinned by the seven critical pillars of maritime security, maritime ecology, maritime resources, capacity building and resource training, disaster risk reduction and management, science, technology and academic cooperation, and finally trade, connectivity and maritime transport. Emphasising that India will be a driving force for all the areas identified under IPOI, the Minister added that India is seeking partnerships with like-minded countries and that countries including Australia, Japan and ASEAN member states have already expressed willingness to work with India in these areas. Promising future for IndoJapanese ties Speaking about the collaboration between India and Japan during pandemic times, Shigehiro
Indian Minister of Railways and Commerce Piyush Goyal Tanaka, Vice Minister, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Government of Japan, said that India presented a huge market for Japan in trade and investment because of the availability of local talent, growing digital literacy, human resource development, diversification of supply chains and the potential for trilateral export promotion. He was speaking at a session on “Promoting India Japan Strategic and Economic Cooperation
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during COVID and Beyond” during the CII Partnership Summit 2020.Tanaka further delineated the three initiatives being pushed by the Japanese Government in the context of India namely, digital cooperation, which was necessary to accelerate transformation through internet of things in medical care and education; industrial competitiveness partnership and human resource development in the manufacturing sector, for
which Japan agreed to train 30,000 Indian workers over the next 10 years in the Japan-India Institute for Manufacturing; and forming economic trilateral alliances. In this case, the Asia Africa Growth Corridor served as a cooperation mechanism for India and Japan to jointly drive economic prosperity and sustainable development in the continent.
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