Shourie calls for united resistance to BPO backlash

THE CII's 10TH PARTNERSHIP SUMMIT

Developing nations which provide business process outsourcing (BPO) services to developed countries need to come together to counter the backlash of developed nations by educating political leaders and media and other opinion leaders on how BPO actually benefits their economies, said Arun Shourie, union minister for IT, disinvestment and communications.

Addressing a session on 'Connectivity: The essence of partnership' at the CII Partnership Summit, he said the country, like most developing nations, had finally got rid of the protectionist mindset.

"The recent move of India towards entering into multilateral trade agreements with nations in ASEAN, SAARC and even the coming together with countries such as Brazil and South Africa are clear pointers to the fact that the industry has matured enough to take on foreign competition," he said.

The minister felt that the balance of power in the country was now gradually shifting from the government to the private sector and this had been possible because of a sense of strong partnership between government and private sector.

He also referred to the innovative approaches that the private sector had adopted in areas where the governments have not been able to make much progress.

He made special mention of the trade restrictions between India and Pakistan and how Indian manufacturers had managed to send their products to Pakistan via Dubai.

Shourie charted out several areas of co-operation between nations. He called for joint projects in research and development, collaboration in technology development, especially in the wireless sector to enable increased reach of IT, joint research for developing telecom networks to provide new services and developing of open-source software.

Dato Seri Samy Vellu, the minister of works, Malaysia, in his speech at the session said partnership in infrastructure building, both at national and global levels, holds the key to progress.

Elaborating on the Malaysian experience, Dato Vellu stressed on the fact that the Malaysian government, in order to stimulate social and economic growth, had embarked on the path of infrastructure development way back in 1950.

He added that the government had also drawn up its Vision 2020 and at present more than 45 per cent of the budget allocation is devoted to infrastructure building.

Speaking of the achievements of the Malaysian government on the infrastructure front, Dato Vellu mentioned that to enable internal linkages a $1.5 bn worth 850 km long North-South Expressway had been opened in 1994.

The port sector in Malaysia has also underwent dramatic transformation with building of new facilities and upgrading of old ones and at present there are seven international ports and eight domestic ones, he said.

Dato Vellu added that Malaysian road builders were participating in the Indian roads & highways building exercise in a major way.

"All these have been possible because of active public-private partnership where private sector has been the engine of growth and the government has provided active support and guidance," he said, adding that a nation succeeds when it is perceived as a corporate entity jointly owned by the public and the private sectors.

Opening the session, Arun Bharat Ram, former president of CII, said India had a lot to learn from the Malaysian experience.

He said that Malaysia had been a front runner in infrastructure development and India must emulate Malaysia in order to strengthen economic reforms.