Us Agrees To Provide Transportation Sector Technology
India and the United States have agreed to cooperate in transportation science and technology under a memorandum of intent (MoI) signed between Indian cabinet secretary T S R Subramanium and US transportion secretary Rodney Slater.
Under it the US transport department and the Indian ministry of surface transport would pursue possible accords on transportation science and technology cooperation.
The MoI, which is a precursor to a memorandum of understanding between the US and India that would envisage American support and assistance to develop Indias infrastructure in the transportation sector, noted that the two agencies of both countries would designate appropriate representatives to confer on the development of methods of effective cooperation and technology exchanges for mutual benefit.
It also stated that this cooperative venture would also envisage the advancement of both countries respective transportation capabilities.
According to the MoI, once consensus between the parties (US transport department and Indian ministry of surface transport) has been reached concerning the objectives and mutual benefits of a formal agreement, their representatives would consider specific language that would form the basis for a memorandum of understanding between the United States and India on transportation science and technology cooperation.
Subramanium and his high-powered official delegation also participated in an infrastructure forum on energy and transportation put together by the US-India business council, which attracted over 300 major US businesses interested in doing business in India and also senior US government officials.
As he had done in New York two days earlier during his meeting with leading New York-based financial institutions, the message Subramanium carried to Washington was the same - that India is in dire need of foreign investment to alleviate its insufficient infrastructure sectors, particularly power and transportation. Subramanium said despite Indias sustained economic growth, there was no way the country could elevate itself to a high plane in terms of its economy and be a global player unless there was drastic improvement in its infrastructure. It is imperative, if the economy is to move to the next plane, that Indiabreaks the logjam of infrastructure, that faces the country, he said.
Subramanium said that in the last few years, there was a general consensus among the people of India that private investment including investment from abroad is healthy for the economy in the infrastructure sector.
He said with the resolution of the Enron matter, the political decks have been cleared, and emphasized that there were now no political risks to foreign investment. That question is now over, he said, noting that there was now a heavy economic policy agenda for legislation, for procedures for deregulation and also cooperation and coordination among the government departments. Subramanium said it should also be appreciated that the acceleration of the pace of reform has come at a time when 14 political parties form the coalition United Front government. There is an important lesson here, the cabinet secretary said, and stressed that the economic policy had been now completely delinked from the politics of the country and the various states.
Subramanium said, I dont want to paint a rosy picture., but added that the unshackling of the economy, the legal system in the country, has made it a serious contender for the long-term investor.
He said in the last decade or so there had not been a single case where a foreign investor has been treated differently than a citizen of our own country.
However, in a background paper, which had been given to Subramanium by Ambassador Frank Wisner in New Delhi before the former set out to the US, the US embassy in New Delhi said that despite the relatively encouraging indicators in the Indian economy,there are signs that infrastructure bottlenecks are affecting economic grwoth.
It said that potential investors in Indias infrastructure sectors had expressed frustration over problems common to many of the sectors, and noted that these included infrastructure projects that are too often politicized.
The paper said that despite repeated assurances that a national `consensus is in place, political leaders cannot resist invoking failed `populist policies, for example, free power to the poor.