Interactive Meeting with Dr. Annette Schavan, German Federal Minister for Education & Research and Members of the Visiting Parliamentary Delegation, February 6, 2007

The India-EU Forum of Parliamentarians (IEUFP) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) organized an interactive meeting with a high-powered EU delegation led by Dr. Annette Schavan, German Federal Minister for Education and Research at the Federation House on February 6, 2007. Other members of the delegation comprised of Ms. Ulla Burchardt, Head of the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment, and Member of the German Bundestag; Mr. Sebastian Edathy, Chairman, German-India Friendship Group, and Member of the German Bundestag; Ms. Cornelia Pieper, Member of the German Bundestag; Mr. Marcus Weinberg, Member of the German Bundestag; Ms. Priska Hinz, Member of the German Bundestag; Dr. Petra Sitte, Member of the German Bundestag; and Mr. Friedhelm Kappenstein, Sekretariat, Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment, German Bundestag. The Indian Parliamentarians attending the meeting were Mr. Dinesh Trivedi (Chairman, IEUFP); Mr. Robert Kharshiing (Co-Chairman, IEUFP); Mr. Shahid Siddiqui; Mr. Sachin Pilot; and Mr. Ajay Maroo.

H.E. Bernd Muetzelburg (German Ambassador to India), Mr. Weert Boerner, Counsellor (Political), and Ms. Marian Schuegraf, Counsellor (S&T) represented the German Embassy at the meeting. Mr. Ramesh Chandran, Executive Director, IEUFP was also present at the meeting.

Other invitees present at the meeting were H.E. Francisco Da Camara Gomes, Head of the Delegation of the European Commission; Dr. Peter Gey, Resident Representative, FES; Mr. Rajeshwar Dyal, Senior Advisor, FES; Mr. Daniel Reichart, FES; Mr. Joerg Wolff, Resident Representative, Konrad Adenauer Foundation; Mr. A.P. Singha, Deputy Director General, Indo-German Chamber of Commerce & Industry; Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Director, ICRIER; Mr. A.S. Krishna, Director, Govt. Affairs and Policy, Johnson & Johnson (India) Ltd.; Mr. Indranil Banerjie, Executive Director, SAPRA India Foundation; Mr. Nitin Desai, Honorary Professor, ICRIER; Mr. Pavan Choudhary, Council Member, European Business Group; Mr. Birthe Foster, Vice-Chairperson, European Business Group; Dr. S. Chandrasekharan, Director, South Asia Analysis Group; and Mr. René Klaff, Regional Director-South Asia, FNST.

At the outset of the interactive session, Mr. Dinesh Trivedi extended a warm welcome to Dr. Schavan and other distinguished members of the EU delegation on behalf of the IEUFP. India is a huge country, with enormous needs of infrastructure and investment in manufacturing and services, he informed, adding that there was a natural convergence between its developmental needs and the EU's investment needs. This complementarity, he believed, could nurture a vastly expanded agenda of economic and business cooperation in the new century.

Focusing on the excellent opportunities offered by India to do business more than ever before, Mr. Trivedi said that there was a growing commitment to carrying out further economic reforms, across the political spectrum. With an annual average GDP growth of almost 8%, India was among the fastest growing economies in the world, he stressed.

He said that more companies from the EU should gainfully seek business opportunities in India, with the aim to grow, flourish and become partners in India's development strategy. Concluding his remarks, Mr. Trivedi thanked the gathering for coming to the meeting and invited Mr. Robert Kharshiing to address the gathering.

Welcoming the gathering once again on behalf of IEUFP, Mr. Kharshiing said that the Indo-EU alliance was strengthened over the years through periodic high-level bilateral exchanges between the two countries. The IEUFP, he affirmed, in this regard provided a centralised platform to Parliamentarians of both sides to identify the major challenges, potential areas of cooperation by initiating a series of productive discussions and exchanges between India and the EU at every level to give a push to the all-comprehensive India-EU partnership.

The recent phenomenon of Indian investments in the EU and vice-versa, especially in knowledge-based sectors of information technology and information and communication technology, biotechnology (including pharmaceuticals), nanotechnology, research, health, education, environment, hydrocarbon prospecting and production, transportation, urban development, energy, roads, tourism and hospitality, and entertainment have added a new dimension to the overall India-EU economic relations, he remarked.

Praising the fact that the EU's strengths lied in creativity, innovation and quality, Mr. Kharshiing said that Europe's economy combined a strong industrial base with a knowledge-based economy founded on a skilled workforce and a high level of investment in research and development. In addition, he affirmed that India's vast reservoir of knowledge resources - engineers, scientists, technicians, managers and skilled personnel, compare favourably to the best in the world. He said that he believed strongly that if India and the EU could combine their strengths together, it would be most beneficial to their bilateral partnership.

The opportunities for cooperation between India and the EU were vast, he stressed. Both the countries provided each other a liberal, attractive and investor friendly climate, which must be tapped to its potential, he suggested adding that if this could be done then their partnership would serve as an example for others.

Opportunities such as these provided both India and the EU occasions to exchange views on a range of issues, which would help them learn from each other and understand each other's problems and interests better, he emphasized.

Welcoming the distinguished guests once again with the hope that the upward swing in the India-EU bilateral trade would strengthen in the years to come, Mr. Kharshiing invited Dr. Schavan to address the gathering.

Dr. Schavan in her remarks welcomed the gathering on behalf of the EU Council Presidency and the German Federal Government. She expressed her happiness over the opportunity to get to know the Indian Parliamentarians and establish new contacts and partnerships at a Parliamentarian level.

Referring to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel's joint declaration in Germany in 2006, she said that establishing personal contacts could intensify this partnership. By meeting and talking with each other, she stressed, both the countries would succeed in shaping global relations as partners, while making good use of their joint opportunities.

Highlighting the motto of the German EU Presidency "Europe - succeeding together", she said that these words were also directed towards people outside Europe. She asserted that their Presidency did not just want to shape Europe with their European partners alone, but also would like to involve their non-European friends in order to face the challenges of globalization together.

India and EU have not just become important partners in trade, but also in research and development, she stressed, referring to the strategic partnership between India and the EU, which was sealed almost three years ago. These developments she maintained were a result of globalization, which according to her were extremely positive.

According to Dr. Schavan, trade and industry secure growth and prosperity - and research and innovation were decisive preconditions: education, research, development and innovation were the keys to their future performance - and thus to their prosperity.

Focusing on the need to strengthen the role of research and development at a national level as well as in bilateral ties, Europe had seized important initiatives in its research cooperation with India, she declared, illustrating the example of the Jean Monnet Chair for European Studies at the University of Delhi.

The India-EU Science Forum, she said would be a further step towards smoothing the path for exchanges between the scientific talents of India and the EU to their mutual advantage. The aim of the Science Forum, and the IEUFP Meeting meeting, she reiterated was therefore to advertise and promote Europe's scientific landscape. Research, development and innovation are among key topics and the successful implementation of the Seventh Research Framework Programme, which was launched a few weeks ago, was of particular importance for cooperation between Europe and India, she emphasized, adding that the Programme was now completely open to participation by third countries.

The implementation of the so-called Lisbon Strategy, Dr. Schavan declared, under which the Member States had committed themselves to investing 3% of their Gross Domestic Product in research and development by 2010, remained one of the EU's most ambitious projects. India had set itself a similarly ambitious aim at the beginning of its 11th Five-Year Plan, she said.

Ms. Ulla Burchardt, in her remarks said that the EU had been supporting primary education in India (€200 million over 2002-2008). For the first time in 2006, she said, more than 100 recognized European Higher Education Institutions from more than 25 European Countries had gathered in New Delhi for the European Higher Education Fair from 24 to 26 November. The EU took this initiative to provide an opportunity to the Indian students, to get a close and direct insight into the high quality and diversity of the European Higher Education and Research and to get to know Europe better, she informed.

Earlier in 2005, she declared, that the EU had officially launched in India the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship Programme aimed at fostering co-operation and mobility in the field of higher education and promoting the EU as a centre of excellence in learning around the world. India, with total scholarship worth 33 million euro earmarked for the 2005-2008 period, she explained was by far the biggest recipient of the Asian window within the Programme.

Further, she said both India and the EU were also trying to link up websites of their Universities and academic institutions in order to better inform students of academic opportunities in each other's areas; encourage the development of EU studies in India and Indian studies in the EU; and facilitate access to academic institutions and residence in each other's territory of students admitted into bonafide programmes of such institutions.

Expressing his happiness over the strengthening Indo-German bilateral ties, Mr. Edathy said in 2006 India became the only country to be honoured for the second time in the Frankfurt Book Fair's 58-year history. India's participation at the Book Fair and a series of allied events throughout the country, effectively made 2006 the Year of India in Germany, he remarked. He emphasised that a record number of 150 Indian publishers participated and about 70 Indian writers were at the Fair. India's presence at the book fair and other similar events was about a bigger cultural picture rather than one confined to the themes of the events, he informed.

Mr. Edathy also focused on the new Cultural Exchange Programme, which was signed between India and Germany on October 25, 2005 for the next three years. The CEP, he informed, covered cooperation in the fields of higher education, general and vocational education, performing and physical arts, handicrafts, media (books, radio, television and other forms), archaeology and monument conservation. On the education front, Mr Edathy confessed that Sanskrit was re-booming in Germany and in recent years, education fairs like 'Hi!Potentials - International Careers made in Germany' had been held resulting in enormous increase in the number of Indian students at German universities.

Following Mr. Edathy's Remarks, the session was left open for discussion.

Mr. Siddiqui urged the visiting Parliamentary delegation to focus on promoting tourism. He said that the number of tourists coming from Germany to India was far more than the number of tourists going to Germany from India. He said that this was one sector where the potential had not been realized.

Mr. Edathy spoke on the importance of promoting student exchange programmes between Indian and EU universities. He said that both India and the EU had knowledge-based societies which would benefit immensely by the exchange of technical know-how.

Highlighting that considerable interaction had taken place between the business communities of India and the EU, the Parliamentary delegates said that various delegations from different sectors had visited in the past and even now regularly visit each other's countries to explore business opportunities. The Parliamentarians said that there was regular participation by businessmen of both countries in trade fairs and exhibitions in India and the EU.

Further lauding the success of Indians in every sphere, Ms. Pieper spoke of the emergence of India as an important player on the Asian as well as on the global scale.

Lamenting on the energy scenario in India, Dr. Sitte said that India needed to improve and upgrade its energy infrastructure in order to fully achieve its energy security.

On a concluding note, Mr. Kharshiing expressed optimism saying that the India-EU partnership in areas such as energy, infrastructure, trade and investment and science and technology, would definitely strengthen further in the years to come.