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Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, has today said that India has been quite aggressive with her trading partners in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks to make the movement of professionals less cumbersome across borders, so as to ensure greater market access for India in the services sector. “Increase in the size of the firms with proper regulation to deliver quality service alone would not fetch market access in other countries. For this to happen, we believe that visa rules and procedures, grant of work permits, etc. should be facilitated without making them prisoners of labour market tests, economic needs tests and other related impediments of market access under Mode-4”, he said while addressing the 55th Annual Function of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, here today.
Shri Kamal Nath said that India had also been actively engaged in negotiations for Economic Cooperation Agreements with various countries and trading blocs, which would again create market access opportunities for Indian professionals. In each of these agreements, Shri Kamal Nath said necessary steps were being taken to work out Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) with the professional associations of the concerned countries. “This will give you an opportunity to see that qualified professionals are able to deliver necessary services under Mode-4, as contract service suppliers or as independent professionals. The ICAI has a critical role to play in the negotiation of these MRAs on behalf of India, so as to enable us to promote movement of our qualified professionals to various countries”, he said.
Shri Kamal Nath underlined that another area of opportunity for professionals like Chartered Accountants would be Mode-1 i.e., cross-border supply of services through electronic means, without actual physical movement of personnel. “Considerable amount of work is now undertaken through back office operations. This has provided employment to a large number of people in the country. It is estimated the Back Office Operations and other Business Process Outsourcing services in India, which amounted to 2 billion dollars in 2002, will rise eleven-fold to 22 billion dollars by 2008. Strict observation of conditions of contract by firms in India is necessary. You must remember that the quality of your service will in the international arena reflect on the reputation of the entire service sector of India”, he stressed.
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