PM wants economic apartheid to go

india on friday demanded greater market access in the west in the face of pressures on it to open its markets to foreign goods and services with prime minister atal bihari vajpayee blaming the divide between developed and developing nations for the global economic slowdown. it is only fair that developed economies give us greater access in areas where india enjoys comparative advantages, vajpayee said at the concluding session of the second india-eu business summit here. reiterating india's commitment to a more open trading regime and greater integration with the global economy, he said there is a strong perception among developing countries that they have not got all the anticipated gains from globalisation. the current global economic slowdown has forced us to identify and understand its root causes, he said, adding i believe that one of them is the continuing and in some ways widening divide between developed and developing countries. emphasising the need for collective and concerted international action to reverse the current economic slowdown and to eliminate poverty worldwide, vajpayee cautioned that a selective or piecemeal approach will not work. he said there could not be a sustainable and qualitatively superior recovery in the developed economies unless they effectively respond to the needs and concerns of the developing countries. vajpayee pointed out that india has emerged as one of the fastest growing economies in the world and said: the need for consensus in a democracy may entail some compromise on the speed of reforms. but once accepted these changes have the advantage of being more durable. admitting that india had to lower its growth projections this year due to cyclical factors and slowdown of the world economy, he exuded confidence that the slowdown would be temporary and said that we have especially focused on faster implementation of policies and programmes with emphasis on the infrastructure sector. seeking greater india-eu trade and investment flows, he said information technology should be one of the priority areas for the two entities to deepen their economic partnership. he, however, regretted that visa restrictions were often coming in the way of indian software professionals and the comparative advantage of our professionals is not allowed to be harnessed in full measures, to the loss of both india and the eu.

PM wants economic apartheid to go

<img src=/photo.cms?msid=1772533752 align=left>INDIA on Friday demanded greater market access in the West in the face of pressures on it to open its markets to foreign goods and services with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee blaming the divide ...

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