UNDP CHIEF HELEN CLARK MEETS INDIA'S PM

Thesynergyonline Economic Bureau

NEW DELHI, MARCH 12 :
HELEN Clark, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), met with Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India, the last day of her five-day official visit to India.

Miss Clark who was the Prime Minister of New Zealand for nine years before taking over as the chief of UNDP last year discussed how UNDP could enhance its partnership with India to foster human development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) globally through greater South-South cooperation in her meeting.

“UNDP’s partnership with India in the 21st century should also have a global dimension. India has many experiences to share and technologies available to assist other developing countries to meet their development challenges,” said Miss Clark immediately after her meeting.

Noting that few countries have embraced the human development approach as strongly as India, having produced a series of influential national, state, district and municipal-level Human Development Reports, Miss Clark said: “Local governments are now using disaggregated human development indices to allocate local budgets to address disparities in human development. Efforts like these to localize development goals are especially important in a country as large and diverse as India, where challenges and opportunities vary sharply across geographic areas and communities.”

UNDP India is a significant partner of government in delivering development initiatives in countries across the globe. With support from UNDP, Rwanda is engaging with India to learn from its experience of the Green Revolution, in Guinea Bissau India is introducing solar power for rural electrification with assistance from UNDP and lessons have also been shared between India and Brazil to expand access to low-cost HIV/AIDS treatment with UNDP.

Furthermore, India is providing wide-ranging support to meet development challenges in Afghanistan.  “Building on these experiences, UNDP looks forward to taking its relationship with India to a new level of engagement in South-South cooperation,” Helen Clark added.

During her visit to India, Clark also visited the Bhilwara district in the western Indian state of Rajasthan to witness different aspects of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), the world’s largest “cash for work” initiative that guarantees 100 days of work to any rural household in India that demands it. Miss Clark observed that NREGS is an example of the knowledge and experience that India could export to other developing countries for transformational global change.

Accompanied with Union Rural Development Minister Dr. C.P. Joshi, Miss Clark saw at first hand the innovations that UNDP is collaborating on with the Ministry of Rural Development under the NREGS in Bhilwara.

These include: ways to improve transparency, develop skills and literacy of workers, promote financial inclusion, and create knowledge networks for action research to bring a human development dimension to the programme. While there, she visited a water conservation work site and discussed new innovations which allow workers to receive wages using fingerprint technology. A mobile-based system also enables workers to access information just by sending a SMS.

“There are very many exciting aspects to this scheme, but most exciting of course is the benefit it can bring to women, men and families,” said Miss Clark, adding: “We hope by working 100 days per year, there will be more money for food for the family, more money for health care, and more money for people to be able to support themselves.” Miss Clark also discussed the programme with local women who had been elected representatives in the district. In Jaipur, she met with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

In Delhi, on International Women’s Day, Helen Clark co-released the latest Asia Pacific Human Development Report with Dr. Syeda Hameed, Member of the Planning Commission, which focuses on women and gender equality.

The Report, Power Voice and Rights: A Turning Point for Gender Equality in Asia and the Pacific explores three key areas —economic power, political decision-making and legal rights? to analyse what holds women back, and how policies and attitudes can be changed to foster a climb toward gender equality. Asia, the Report asserts, is at a cross-road and by putting the right policies in place now, countries in the region can achieve positive change. She also met with Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, in Delhi.  (editor@thesynergyonline.com) .

GOVT OF MAURITIUS SIGNS MoU WITH QUATRRO

Thesynergyonline Economic Bureau

NEW DELHI, (India) / Port Louis (Mauritius), FEB 10 :
BOARD of Investment , Government of Mauritius has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to build the job infrastructure in Mauritius through a strong partnership with Quatrro. The MOU will focus on accelerating job Opportunities by utilizing innovative work processes for the people of Mauritius.

“This MoU allows Mauritius to showcase its world-class service at a price-point projected to be over 50 percent lower than current processing costs in the United States, reflecting the superior efficiency of the state-of-the-art technology platform coupled with the cost-effective offshore service solution. They will also be pursuing opportunities to service customers and Companies from French speaking countries. BOI and Quatrro will extensively work together on providing ongoing support, enhancing domain expertise and business development, to these initiatives.” said Dr. Ramakrishna Sithanen, VPM and Minister of Finance and Economic Empowerment.

The Minister of Finance and Economic Empowerment of the Republic of Mauritius, in the budget speech of 2010 has laid special emphasis on creation of job opportunities for people in Mauritius both full time and part time basis. This initiative will especially focus on women who want to work from home while attending to other responsibilities at home.

Board of Investment (BOI), Mauritius, Managing Diector, Raju Jaddoo, said, “The work from home BPO being deployed by Quatrro in Mauritius is a landmark not only for the fast growing BPO industry of Mauritius but also for the empowerment of people willing to take advantage of the flexibility of working from their domicile”.

Quatrro BPO Solutions (Quatrro), founded by Raman Roy (Quatrro) and the Board of Investment Mauritius are partnering together to implement the ‘Work from home BPO scheme’ in Mauritius. This project, the first of its kind in the outsourcing arena in Mauritius will be a major stepping stone for Mauritius, helping them ride the next wave in the ICT/BPO industry. This initiative also enhances Quatrro’s capability of end-to-end processing of high volume transactions using an onshore-offshore model.

“Partnering with Board of Investment is a unique initiative. This coming together of successful organizations with talented people and great business acumen is in line with our creating value by innovation strategy. Quatrro’s depth, the experience and talent of their professionals coupled with BOI’s initiative will empower an ever increasing workforce and make Mauritius an even stronger force in the industry. We look forward to a long relationship with them. This initiative will be a catalyst to further accelerate growth and work opportunities, while empowering the citizens of Mauritius”, said Mr. Raman Roy, Chairman & Managing Director, Quatrro.

Following this launch, the Board of Investment, Government of Mauritius proposes to take advantage of Quatrro’s expanded processing expertise and cost savings to showcase the service efficiencies from Mauritius for customer across the globe. (editor@thesynergyonline.com) .

 MAURITIUS AN UPCOMING DESTINATIONS FOR INVESTMENTS

Thesynergyonline Economic Bureau

NEW DELHI, JAN 21 :  
A high- level delegation from Mauritius led by The Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economic Empowerment, Mauritius Dr. Ramakrishna Sithanen along with Mr Raju Jaddoo, Managing Director, Board of Investment and Mr Milan Meetarbhan, Chief Executive, Financial Services Commission visited New Delhi and Mumbai from January 17 - 22, 2010.

Two investors’ roundtable meets were organized focusing on positioning Mauritius as a growing business and financial hub offering numerous investment opportunities, both on shore and off shore; whereby key facts and details were provided to Indian investors and other professionals attending the high profile event.

· ICT/BPO - ‘Mauritius: An emerging location for delivery of global services’ highlighted Mauritius as a leading global outsourcing destination ranked 25th on the A.T. Kearney Global Services Location index – 2007 and among the highest in Africa in the Digital Opportunity Index (DOI) ranking. In the past four years, the IT/BPO industry has sustained an annual growth rate of 25 per cent.

· Hospitality - ‘Mauritius: Bridging the worlds of real estate, hotels and finance’ showcased the real estate sector as particularly attractive due to absence of any capital gains tax, estate or inheritance tax. Furthermore, the advantages of Invest-Hotel Scheme were stressed upon. The scheme allows hotel developers to finance the development of a hotel project by allowing them to sell villas, suites, rooms or other components that form part of the hotel to individual buyers, therefore, shared ownership through equity participation.

· Pharma and Healthcare - ‘Investing in the healthcare sector in Mauritius’ focused on Mauritius building itself the reputation of medical hub and an emerging medical travel destination. The development in its healthcare industry has been consistent and sustained. The number of privately owned clinics and hospitals increased by more than 50 per cent in the last three years. The country has attracted significant Foreign Direct Investment in the healthcare and medical travel sector. Major global healthcare players have invested multi-speciality and super-speciality centres of excellence to provide a spectrum of treatment and services.

· Financial Services - ‘Mauritius: A Financial Centre of Substance’ showcased Mauritius as a preferred destination for investment because of the quality of the service providers, the legal and regulatory framework, the time zone, and because of their image as an International Financial Centre of repute.

“The existing bilateral relations between the two countries not only reflect the contemporary nature of their relationship but also lay the foundation for their future development & growth. The relations with India have only matured over the years and are characterized by close trust and understanding and extensive cooperation in the field of economic development”, said Dr. Ramakrishna Sithanen, VPM and Minister of Finance and Economic Empowerment.

His visit also emphasized on the constructive transformation of the business and investment climate in Mauritius that has allowed the island to be internationally recognized as a premier investment destination. It also highlighted the benefits to investors and professionals that Mauritius has to offer as an investment destination and financial platform.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Raju Jaddoo, Managing Director of Board of Investment, Mauritius opined, “Mauritius is poised to leverage the relationship with India for promotion of investments and ease of doing business. Mauritius is clearly a jurisdiction of choice as it provides investors an edge with unmatched transparency, stability, reliability with an open and business friendly environment.  The presence of leading Indian corporate houses like Apollo, Fortis, SBI, Bank of Baroda, LIC, Indian Oil and the Taj Group in Mauritius indicates the huge business opportunities available in the country and the growing interest amongst Indian investors”.

Through its various memberships with the IOSCO, IAIS, FATF and the IFSB as well as its recognition by the OECD as a 'white listed' jurisdiction, the island is regarded as a very competitive business destination by the global investors’ community.

The extensive network of bilateral agreements, double taxation agreements and investment promotion and protection agreements makes Mauritius an ideal hub for penetrating the promising and emerging markets of Africa and Asia.  Moreover, in an attempt to increase transparency and further comply with international norms, Mauritius has signed a number of Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with leading financial centres and regulators around the world with respect to exchange of information.  (editor@thesynergyonline.com) .

NEED FOR REGIONAL PACT TO BRING ABOUT ENERGY SECURITY : SM KRISHNA

Thesynergyonline Economic Bureau

NEW DELHI, JAN 21 :
INDIA'S External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has underlined the need for a regional approach to bring about energy security In India and the ASEAN nations which can accommodate competing demands and constraints while shifting the focus from competition to cooperation based on mutual interests.

Inaugurating the "Delhi Dialogue II – Regional Security and Cooperation Dialogue" here on Thursday, Mr Krishna said “We look forward to continued engagement with ASEAN countries and our partners in the East Asia Summit on this issue.”

The Delhi Dialogue II has been organized by FICCI in association with the Ministry of External and co-partnered by Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) and Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), Jakarta and supported by SAEA Research Group, Singapore.

Mr. Krishna said that India-ASEAN FTA in goods, which came into force on January 1 this year, has opened new possibilities for the expansion of India’s trade with the region and expressed the hope that agreements on trade-in-services and Investment would also be concluded soon.

The External Affairs Minister noted that people-to-people contacts and cultural and academic exchanges between India and the ASEAN region have continued to grow. The revival of the Nalanda University as an international institution of excellence, he added, has emerged as an important initiative that underlines the ancient linkages of the two regions.

“We strongly believe in sharing our developmental experiences with our fellow developing countries. We have been happy to participate in development cooperation programmes with ASEAN countries, and in the ‘Initiative for ASEAN Integration’ Programme. We have given particular emphasis to human resource development through training, scholarships, establishment of entrepreneurship development centres and language training centres,” Mr. Krishna declared.

He said that the ASEAN-India S&T Fund, which has been operationalised, would promote joint collaborative research projects in Science and technology. The proposed India-ASEAN Green Fund, with a corpus of US$ 5 million, would promote adaptation and mitigation technologies in the area of climate change.

The Minister said that at the 7th India–ASEAN Summit in October last year, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had announced several initiatives to further strengthen the links between India and ASEAN.

These links included establishment of an India-ASEAN Round Table comprising think tanks, policy makers, scholars, media and business representatives that would provide policy inputs to the governments of India and the ASEAN countries on future areas of cooperation; intensification of negotiations on an open skies policy; further simplification of the visa regime to encourage business and tourist travel; more youth exchange programmes; enhanced cooperation in the agriculture sector to meet the challenges of food security; cooperation in the application of space technologies; holding an ASEAN trade and industrial exhibition in India; among others.

“We are ready to allocate up to US $ 50 million to support these initiatives. We would continue to explore ways to further enhance our cooperation and benefit from our complementarities,” he said.

Mr. Krishna said that in the wake of the recent global financial and economic crisis, it was imperative to develop greater cooperation among developing countries, so that these countries have an effective voice in the international financial architecture and a new global economic order.

In his welcome address, Mr. Harsh Pati Singhania, President, FICCI, pointed out that while India and the ASEAN nations have to work closely with the western economies on addressing the global challenges, there are many things that could be done at the regional level to ensure that the long term growth path is sustainable. The global crisis has clearly shown the limitations Asia faces on account of vulnerabilities to external shocks.

He said that Asian economies are heavily dependent on the western markets for their exports. The bulk of foreign funds that flow into these economies also come from the western capital markets. This dependence on the west, needs to be reduced, he said.

Mr Singhania said that India-ASEAN bilateral trade has crossed the US $ 45 billion mark and we will top the US $ 50 billion mark in 2010.
“While our next immediate target for bilateral trade is US$ 70 billion, FICCI would like to propose that the two sides aim to achieve US$ 100 billion in trade by 2015”, he said, adding that with the first essential step towards this already taken – India–ASEAN FTA is now operational – this target is certainly achievable.

A FICCI analysis shows that ASEAN and India have much to offer to each other. While ASEAN countries can benefit from India’s strengths in IT, BPO, pharmaceuticals, space science and oceanography, India can learn valuable lessons from ASEAN countries in infrastructure development and maintenance, tourism management and urban area development.

“We need to cover a lot of ground and cooperate even more in the fields of maritime security and energy security. We also need to strengthen our connectivity and improve our logistical links. This is particularly relevant form the point of view of development of India’s North East which is in a way our superhighway to the ASEAN countries. More channels of communication and travel between India’s North East and ASEAN countries would prove to be a strong stimulus to regional growth,” the FICCI President declared.

Countries, he said, can prosper and grow only in a secure environment, adding that terrorism is a regional and global problem and we will have to deal with this in a collective manner on a mission mode.

Mr. K Kesavapany, Director, ISEAS, noted that the target of achieving a US$ 100 billion trade turnover between India and the ASEAN countries by 2015 was a “signpost that we must all aspire for” and concurred with Mr. Singhania that the target was achievable if the borders were kept open and trade was free of barriers.

Immediately after the inaguration, the first session was held on the topic “A New Asian Century”. It was moderated by Ambassador See Chak Mun, Senior Advisor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore. Sam Pitroda, Chairman, National Knowledge Commission, delivered the keynote address.

Manish Tewari, Member of Parliament and Spokesperson, Indian National Congress, Prakash Jawakar, Spokesperson, BJP, and Gautam Adhikari, former Editor-in-Chief, Times of India and Consultant World Bank, Washington D.C., also addressed this pre-lunch session. (editor@thesynergyonline.com)

LAO MINISTER WOOS INDIAN COMPANIES TO SET UP JV

Thesynergyonline Economic Bureau

NEW DELHI, JAN 29 :
DR Nam Viyaketh, Minister of Industry and Commerce, Lao PDR, has invited Indian wholly-owned or joint ventures in his country as Lao initiates steps to turn the disadvantage of being landlocked into an advantage of being land-linked through the implementation of the north-south and east-west economic corridor projects to link the transport network with the neighbouring countries, and other parts of the world.

Addressing the post-lunch session on “India-ASEAN: The Way Forward for Economic Cooperation & Integration after the Free Trade Agreement” at the Delhi Dialogue II, Dr. Viyaketh said, “Lao PDR is endowed with abundant natural resources, especially in mining and hydropower sectors. The Lao Government has improved its laws and regulations to facilitate trade and attract foreign investors. Yet, it has to do more on issuing and harmonise laws and regulations as the country prepares for its accession to the WTO.”

Union Minister of Commerce & Industry Anand Sharma could not attend the session due to the Cabinet meeting.

The session was moderated by Dr Amit Mitra, Secretary General, FICCI and Mr Hidetoshi Nishimura, Executive Director, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), Jakarta, also addressed the session.

Lao Minister Dr Nam Viyaketh with Ms Latha Reddy, Secretary (East), India's Ministry of External AffairsDr. Viyaketh said that Lao cooperates actively under the sub-regional frameworks that would contribute to the acceleration of ASEAN integration moving towards its goal of establishing an ASEAN Economic Community in 2015.

He said, bilaterally, India was the seventh largest investment partner of the Lao PDR between 2000 and 2009, with an approximate investment of US$ 351 million. In 2008, the total trade between Lao and India was US$ 3.2 million, an increase of 21.5 per cent compared with 2007, covering 0.13 per cent of the total value of trade between Laos and the rest of the world in 2008.

Although bilateral trade between Laos and India was insignificant, “I strongly believe that due to the coming into force of the ASEAN-India FTA, our bilateral trade will expand at a healthy rate,” he said. (editor@thesynergyonline.com)