Commerce secretary and Chairman of Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) Mr G K Pillai, in his convocation address at IIFT, said, “Management education in today’s world cannot be complete without in-depth understanding of international trade.”
He observed that India has met its target of US $ 125 billion in exports during the fiscal 2006-07 in spite of increasing non-tariff barriers as well as rising rupee. An increased export target of US $160 billion for the year 2007-08 and an export target of $ 200 billion for 2008-09 have been set.
According to him this will force both Indian Industry as well as the government to adequately restructure the export basket so as to meet the challenges of expanding markets both in developed as well as developing countries including the Africa, CIS and Latin America.
Outlining the strengths of India Mr Pillai said, “The core strength of India are entrepreneurship, favorable demographics, a large workforce, a growing consumer base, a committed leadership and a vibrant democracy.” These strengths together make India a very important investment destination in the world.
India’s skilled labour is a big attraction for trade. Said Mr Pillai, “Potential foreign investors are keen to make India as their production base due to availability of skilled labour and an educated pool of management and technical personnel for expanding into Asian markets.”
However, India faces the twin challenges of improving infrastructure as well as health and education to meet the demand of a young and growing population.
Shri G K Pillai noted that by 2025 the Indian economy is projected to be about 60 percent the size of the US economy. The transformation into a tri-polar economy should get completed by 2035, with the Indian economy only a little smaller than the US economy but larger than that of Western Europe. By 2035, India is likely to be larger growth driver than the six largest countries in the EU.
Talking about the challenges faced by policy makers he said, “The impact of globalization and the increasing efforts of India to reach out and economically engage with other countries are the real challenge for policy makers.”
