Modi addresses and meets European business leaders in New Delhi

Modi addresses and meets European business leaders in New Delhi
New Delhi,19 March, 2011





The Hon’ble Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr Narendra Modi, today met top CEOs from European companies in New Delhi as a part of the interactive session held between the Government of Gujarat and the European Business Group India (EBGI). The session was attended by about 85 CEOs of European companies, and ambassadors and trade commissioners of the 27 EU Member States, as well as representatives from the European Commission.

While addressing the meet on ‘Leadership in an Emerging Nation: Balancing Development and Economic Growth”, Shri Narendra Modi, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Gujarat said, “We live in perhaps the most critical era since the 1940s. Many of our previous assumptions are being challenged by economic system failure and natural disasters. None of the global theories have proved to be sufficiently robust. The answers lie within each one of us and it involves nurturing our environment and our human resources, rich and poor, the powerful and the powerless. Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings have much to teach Europe and the world in this regard.”

Advocating exchange of technologies amongst the countries for maximum productivity from minimum usage of natural resources, Gujarat Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi said that we have to use our resources in a manner that the same is available in equal or greater measure for the posterity. Unfortunately, the term ‘development’ has become a limited concept. He also emphasized on a holistic view of human life and sustainable development.

Shri Modi said that “Unto The Last” is the best guiding principle for balancing economic growth and development. However, we have mis-interpreted it to mean just ‘trickle down’ of wealth and development. What we need is the models of development where people are not just beneficiaries, rather they are made equal partners in the process of development. People should be part of the development cycle in the beginning, not at the end.

Giving an example of his own Government, Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi said that Gujarat’s growth model is very different. Growth means active participation of people, Growth means mass movement, Growth is both robust and pervasive and quantitative and qualitative.

“Gujarat’s growth leads India and Gujarat’s growth is inclusive. Our focus now is on human development. Our efforts in terms of good governance have been recognised the world over. I trust European business agrees, Gujarat represents the best of India: our traditional morals and values combined with service delivery which meets global standards.”

India has emerged is the buzz word all around the world today. However, to make India’s emergence steady and sustainable, all States of the country have put up strong foundation. Shri Modi narrated that Gujarat represents the elements of such a strong foundation. Our fundamentals are strong. We are strong not in particular sector but all across the economic sectors. Gujarat’s vibrancy can be felt not only in economic activities but also in social life.

Highlighting the achievements in rural, agriculture and industry sector, Shri Modi said that Gujarat has emerged as the Growth Engine of India not only because it contributes immensely in its economic growth but actually the bigger success is that it has an amazing mix of the big and small; robust and inclusive; fast and yet sustainable. Gujarat’s growth rate of GDP has been double digits for a decade, similarly the people have also grown at the fastest rate of 13.8%. Not only multinationals and big companies have done well, but a large number of SMEs have also prospered. Not only the industry has grown at 13% but agriculture has also grown at 9.6%, he appraised.

He said if we want economic growth to be pervasive, make people its partners and work with environment. India has the power of new energy in the form of its youth and strength of its tradition in the form of its caring culture.

In order to give focus and to work in organized manner on climate change issues, Gujarat has taken a lot of measures in this direction and created full fledged separate department to handle various issues in this regard, Shri Modi appraised.

During his speech, Gujarat CM also outlined the achievement of the State Government which include Jyoti Gram Yojna, Chiranjeevi Yojna, excellent work in water harvesting and good governance etc.

The Chairman of the European Business Group India, Birthe Foster, welcomed the Chief Minister and the Secretary of Industries and Mines, Government of Gujarat, Shri Maheshwar Sahu, who told the assembled guests: “Gujarat is rapidly urbanising and modernising. We are open for European business and you will find the State has developed infrastructural facilities, a skilled workforce, excellent labour relations and a pro-active state government committed to sustainability.”

Some of the key companies who attended the session include BAe Systems, Veolia Water India Pvt Ltd, Vodafone, BP, Dassault, EDF, IKEA, Rio Tinto and Halcrow India as well as Shell Hazira and Alstom India, the co-sponsors of the event with iNDEXTb, the Industrial Extension Bureau.

Leading European companies which have already invested in Gujarat are Heubach, BASF, Bayer, Siemens, Linde AG, Lanxess, Duravit, Pharmacia, Perstorp, Cheminova, Sanofi Aventis amongst many others.

The Chief Minister’s participation in the event represents a further push for investment into India’s fastest-growing state over the last decade and follows on from the highly-successful Vibrant Gujarat 2011 Summit which attracted participation from more than 1,500 foreign investors and secured MoUs valued at over $460bn (20.83 lakh crore Rupees).