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The Union Commerce Secretary, Shri S.N. Menon said that the main role of WTO should be to facilitate international trade and to simultaneously create an environment for its expansion, leading to further growth in member countries. He was making the Chairman’s address at the Convocation Ceremony at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, here this morning. Shri Menon said that inclusion of new areas like the competition policy, FDI, Environment and Labour standards and transparency in government procurement, distracts WTO from its primary function and its efficacy gets further eroded. “Tariff escalation has affected the market access of high value processed products from developing countries. Product regulations and standards have emerged as potential barriers to exports of developing countries…. There is also a strong feeling among developing countries that these new issues will only benefit developed countries and further aggravate the imbalance and inequity which exists in current negotiations”, he said.
In his convocation address Shri N.R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman and Chief Mentor of INFOSYS Technologies Ltd., stressed that India should create greater openness to trade. Noting that exports have been key to economic growth in many countries, he emphasized the need to create strong international brands that are recognized the world over. In this context, he noted that redeploying people from the agriculture sector to construction and manufacturing sectors would help to accelerate growth. He said that 65 per cent of Indian population relies on agriculture, while the share of the sector in the country’s GDP is only 22 per cent. Citing the case of China which pulls one per cent of its people out of agriculture every year, he said that India must look towards exports to drive industry growth.
Making a strong case for India to play a central role in world trade, Shri Murthy underlined that she should encourage competition by opening up industry to foreign investment. He said that FDI in IT, automotive and BPO sectors have forced them to innovate and that with right trade reforms and competition friendly policies, India can register double digit growth rates. “The Indian economy is often portrayed as an elephant: big, lumbering and slow off the mark and we need to change this perception to become a strong global player”, he said.
Wishing the graduating students his best wishes, he urged them to put public good ahead of ‘private good’ as that would lead to greater ‘private good’ in the long run.
Shri Prabir Sengupta, Director of IIFT while welcoming the gathering noted the importance of a new entrepreneurial culture which is required for the optimum utilization of human resources. Shri V.N. Rajesekharan Pillay, Vice Chairman of UGC was among the distinguished gathering who were present.
Mr. Mohit Gupta was the first rank holder in the MBA programme and bagged the Dun & Bradstreet Gold Medal for the Best Student Award. Kartekay S. Thirumalasetti was the second rank holder and bagged the Silver Medal.
SB/SS/NSR
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