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7月25日至26日，CFS2024第十三届财经峰会暨Amazing 2024创新企业家节在北京举行，主题为“向新而行，新质生产力激发新活力”。
本届财经峰会举办了开幕式、主题论坛、致敬盛典、CFS会客厅等多项主题活动，汇聚了众多颇具远见的商业领袖、经济学界翘楚、创业家及新青年代表，共享中国机遇，共促复苏增长。
印度工商会联合会执行董事、厦门金砖国家经济文化中心发起人ATUL DALAKOTI出席活动，并作主旨演讲。以下为演讲实录：
Good day ladies and gentlemen. It is indeed a great pleasure to participate in the Financial Summit in Beijing today. It was always great to come back to Beijing which was home for me for a long time. From the first time I came to Beijing in 1977 and now China has seen an amazing change and it has now become the second largest economy of the world.
The current international landscape is a complicated one. Today we are still seeing the fallout of the Ukraine war and things have become even more complicated due to the Israel-Hamas conflict. The US change in policy towards China has further made the international situation more complex. A lot of trade barriers are being introduced in the name of national and security interest and this is being done by the same countries that were pallbearers of the Globalization process when it suited their economic and political goals.
We are seeing a lot of countries showing inflationary trends while others are facing the consequences of de-inflationary environment. International trade is under stress and we have major issues about Food Security. The war in the Middle East and the situation in Africa has also made the efforts of poverty reductions even more challenging . This has led to countries from the developing world or from the Global South to come under tremendous economic pressure.
Friends, I am great supporter of the New Digital Economy which is truly the engine of global growth today. Any important financial discussion cannot ignore the fact that our future is tied to the New Economy and especially the companies that have already achieved Unicorn status or are going to reach that level soon. Unicorns all over the global are driven by the youth who are true disruptors and tend to look at traditional industries with a fresh perspective. Going forward we would require Digital Agriculture, Digital Retail, Digital Healthcare, Digital Logistics and most important a Digital Mindset for doing Businesses.
Navigating this new reality has brought into focus the Global South which is where the real opportunities are in the 21st century. These developing economies are spread over Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Trading and investments among these countries is becoming more and more important as we go forward as the G7 countries are becoming more and more protective in their trade and investment policies.
In the Global South where the growth engines of the world are now in Asia, which has a population of over 4.7 billion people , is no doubt the growth engine of the world. In Asia , India and China with a combined population of over 2.8 billion are leading the recovery. Both India and China are showing good growth numbers as per the predictions of the World Bank and IMF.
The entrepreneurial mindset is also one of the major reasons for the dynamism of Asia and we see a lot of buzz in the start-up world where a big number of these companies are able to achieve unicorn status in a short time. These are the businesses which are going to be the real growth engines of the world in the coming years and again India and China would be home to a large number of them. In the era of AI and Big Data we would see a disruption in a lot of businesses and our way of life would be dramatically changed, creating an impetus to create new products both in software and hardware which would lead to creation of amazing market valuation for these companies. I am very optimistic of the future of Asia , especially India and China.
India and China are playing a more critical role in world affairs with both the countries standing for the importance of dialogue in solving major issues and give the highest priority to bettering people's lives, which is a common aspiration of people around the world. With the amazing policy of opening up and economic reforms China has in the past 40 years made tremendous progress and today has become the second largest economy and has brought 700 million people out of poverty. India with a great demographic advantage having a young population is also going to grow at a good speed and become the third largest economy of the world soon.
The Global South needs to work on the information infrastructure so that we can try to bridge the digital divide which exists in these economies. Today the number of people who have access to internet connectivity in these markets has grown substantially. There are possibilities of hardware and software products being designed for the Global South , by the Global South and that would certainly help in creating a much better information infrastructure which in turn would help the traditional businesses to also do better and create jobs in these economies as poverty alleviation is still one of the most important goals of the countries from the Global South.
For the Global South to achieve its potential they would require Digital Agriculture, Digital Retail, Digital Healthcare, Digital Logistics and most important a Digital Mindset of doing Business. Companies will need to invest in building digital capabilities, especially hiring people with the skills needed to start and accelerate a digital transformation.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has on various occasions talked about the importance of the Global South to escape the cycle of dependency on systems and circumstances which are not of our making. With a 1.4 billion population and being the 5th largest economy India is one of the most important countries to lead the Global South and at the same time it has good working relationship with the Global North.
The Global South has many issues that they see differently than the Global North and there has to be a serious dialogue to bridge this gap. India has been for a long time of the political belief that non- alignment is the best policy and we see this thinking process continuing in its foreign policy even today. India which has a relatively young population where still a large part of the population is under 35 years of age, has become the 5th largest economy of the world.
If you calculate on the PPP basis India is already the 3rd largest economy of the world.
I personally feel that the way things stand today neither Global North can speak in one voice and the same is true for the Global South. The polarization we see in the political arena in the domestic politics in the US must be a reason for concern for all its partners. So it is important to have a political and economic stand for each country depending on its national requirements and the geopolitical realities and have good working relationships with the Global North and the Global South and India is in a unique situation today to be able to make this connect.
President Xi Jinping speaking on the 70th Anniversary of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence explained that the vision captures the reality that all countries have a shared future and intertwined interests, and sets a new model of equality and coexistence for international relations. It also responds to the world's prevailing trend of peace, development, cooperation and win-win, and opens up new prospects for peace and progress, based on a multipolar world
and inspires new ways to achieve development and security. He highlighted the need for countries to uphold the principle of sovereign equality, cement the foundation of mutual respect, turn the vision for peace and security into reality and unite all forces to achieve prosperity. He also called upon the Global South to stay more open and more inclusive, and join hands together to take the lead in building a community with a shared future for mankind. For this he announced the establishment of the Global South research center and renew the China-IFAD South-South and Triangular Cooperation Facility, and make an additional contribution to support the agricultural development of the Global South.
For the Global South to cooperate one of the big initiatives which has already been in place for some time is BRICS. BRICS plays an important role in bringing the countries of the Global South together and have their voice heard.
BRICS countries today represent an amazing transformation where the countries from the Global South are working together to create connectivity which are economic, cultural and political. Bloomberg has estimated that global growth contribution from BRICS countries is outpacing that of the Group of Seven (G7) based on IMF figures. In fact, BRICS is expected to contribute over 50% of global GDP by 2030. On Jan 01, 2024 BRICS welcomed to its fold 5 new member countries and this figure of 50% would be realized much sooner. At present BRICS countries represents a total population of 42% of the world with 27% of its GDP and 17% of international trade. There are 25 more countries waiting to join the BRICS and create a much bigger group of countries which really represent the Global South and are going to play a bigger role as an economic engine of the international growth. Recently Thailand and Malaysia have announced that they would be officially applying to join BRICS.
We need to work on the information infrastructure so that we can try to bridge the digital divide which exists in these economies. Today the number of people who have access to internet connectivity in these markets has grown substantially. There are possibilities of hardware and software products being designed for the BRICS countries , by the BRICS countries and that would certainly help in creating a much better information infrastructure which in turn would help the traditional businesses to do better.
India China trade is around USD 130 billion but has a potential to reach over USD 200 billion. We do need to find ways and means to balance our trade. This would require all of us to take a more progressive attitude of making more bridges of friendship between the two nations and also create solid trade connectivity which should in turn increase the cross border investments in each other’s fast growing economies.
India is in the process of becoming a digitally advanced country as it ushers in a situation where falling cost and rising availability of smartphones and high speed connectivity has given it a fast paced growing base of digital consumers and the pace of digitalization is even become faster than a lot of developed economies. With more than 25 billion downloaded apps and an average customer spending more than 20 hours a week online , India is creating an amazing ecosystem for transformation of the Manufacturing industry lead by new ideas which are helped by AI and Big Data.
The world today is moving towards a “Shared Economy” concept which is more sustainable and green. With the big changes being brought by artificial intelligence , Big Data, Internet of things , we are seeing a push towards the service sector to concentrate on the Shared Economy ideas. Autonomous vehicles would also play a big role in the things to come in the future. We need to have regulatory policies in place where new technologies can be accepted in different regions at a faster pace so that the benefit of new technology can be available to one and all.
The E-Commerce is seeing phenomenal growth all over the world. The number of people who are doing their shopping online has seen a huge growth and this trend is going to continue. This would also create a possibility of developing huge logistic infrastructure which is labor intensive and creates job opportunities for a lot of young people.
Mobile Payment is going to be the biggest challenge as we need an integrated system which can work cross border. Most of the countries have developed their own Mobile Payment platforms which are quite innovative and cutting edge. We should create connectivity for the Mobile Payment cross border.
The rise of trends such as "off-shoring to on-shoring" and "mass manufacturing to mass customization" has pushed traditional companies to transform rapidly and embrace a new technology-driven business model. Robotics and Automation are helping companies in this transformation.
There are also a lot of opportunities to help small and medium industries to grow. We should create a marketplace for agricultural products as the number of rural population in developing countries is still quite large. As the medium age of our populations increase , we should also create platforms for looking at Wellness and Alternate Medicine.
There is no doubt in my mind that the most important resource in the world today is human capital. You might come from the developed word or the developing world, opportunities today do not discriminate between people like before and like finance , human capital flows to the area which is most conducive to giving a great lifestyle to the people and give opportunities which are fair and equal and allows the human capital to fulfill their ambitions. Therefore in the past few years we have seen many important political leaders and business leaders who have talked about the importance of attracting the right human capital.
We need to work on the information infrastructure so that we can bridge the digital divide which exists with the developed world. Today the number of people who have access to internet connectivity has grown substantially. There are possibilities of hardware and software products being designed ，that would certainly help in creating a much better information infrastructure ,which in turn, would help the traditional businesses to do much better .
The last couple of years has seen a fast development in the content providers for the internet industry as the internet penetration of our markets has increased substantially. Short videos and news aggregators are seeing quite an amazing growth. The business of content is an important one as content is quite specific to a certain market.
Culture is an important part which helps in making bridges of friendship between countries. The young internet user is hungry for content and is open to international content. This is a huge market which would be driven by innovation and local cultural etiquettes which would define how an international player would be able to get into the local market. India which has the maximum amount of content being created including films and TV is looking to expand its market around the world .
These things can only be possible if we have a talent pool from all countries which is able to freely move within these countries and be able to help meet the immense human resource requirements of the fast growing new economy. Ladies and gentlemen we need to quickly work on this so that we can create a dynamic eco system for the new economy companies to grow at a rapid pace, being multilocational and having a workforce which is truly diverse to give an impetus to the New Economy companies who would then create Unicorns that we all can be proud of. India is the third largest ecosystem for start-ups after US and China. Industries like Auto, Fintech, Cleantech, Agritech , Artificial Intelligence and Climate Tech are projected to secure high valuations in 2023。
Ladies and gentlemen , My wish is that India and China and the Global South should become the champions of globalization and work together to create a new world order which is based on the principles of equity and transparency. Let the Global South not only deepen economic and investment relationship but also work hard to make the people to people friendship its goal. Promoting Solidarity and Cooperation to build Momentum for Growth requires deep cultural ties intertwined with close people to people friendship.
As China stands at the threshold of deeper economic opening up and growth I am very confident that the way forward is to create win-win connectivity between the Global South and widen the participation in the BRICS mechanism.
We have launched a BRICS Centre for Economic and Cultural Research & Services and Xiamen BRICS Science and Technology Services Company in Xiamen. These two entities would work on cross border relations between private sector to link the resources , talents , technology , and cross border services. We aims to attract the participation of small and medium sized enterprises and integrate talents, services and other resources. We are really committed to the initiatives of connectivity between countries and civilizations and would be happy to work with like-minded organizations and individuals to create platforms of connectivity for a shared prosperous future. All of you are welcome to get in touch with us.
I would once again like to thank the organizers for the wonderful event that they have put together and wish them all the very best.
Thank you ！
