Sinha showcases India's potential

By P. S. Suryanarayana

CHANG MAI (THAILAND), MAY 6. Inviting foreign investors to India as an independent destination, the Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha, said here today that the country was moving towards the status of ``a highly-developed nation based on strong social, cultural and economic foundations and (sitting) at the cutting edge in science and technology.''

Recounting a whole series of steps taken by India in recent months to liberalise the economy, Mr. Sinha said that the Government was aware that its ``efforts to combat disease, poverty and illiteracy will need to be further augmented.''

``The most important constraint to rapid economic growth in India today is the inadequacy of our infrastructure,'' Mr. Sinha told the assembled foreign investors on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the ADB. In this context, India would go ahead with plans of ``corporatisation of public sector service providers in the areas of telecommunications, ports and airports,'' he said and drew attention to a new Department of Disinvestment.

Expressing satisfaction that the latest Indian budget, seen in many quarters as a far-reaching one, had been passed by Parliament a few days ago, Mr. Sinha drew attention to the approval accorded to certain reductions in subsidies. He explained later that he was not gloating over such a measure which had acquired controversial overtones. The passage of subsidy cutbacks was no negative message either to the Indians or to the international investors, he maintained.

On the question of the relative places of India and China in the calculations of international investors, Mr. Sinha said that they were not competing destinations for FDI.

The ADB president, Mr. Tadao Chino, delivering the traditional address, outlining the bank's priorities and performance, said that the vision of the ADB had been translated into action through the implementation of a poverty reduction strategy, private sector development, promotion of social growth indicators such as education and through the promotion of good governance.

The other key areas of the ADB's focus were cited, covering the challenges of globalisation, application of new technologies, environmental protection and productivity upgradation.

Protests mark meet

PTI reports:

About 2,000 demonstrators pushed over crowd-control barriers and confronted riot police today in protest against the ADB, outside the Chiang Mai University venue.

The protesters, chanting slogans such as ``ADB go to hell,'' sat on both ends of the road outside the venue and vowed to stay there and block the delegates from leaving, though they left a small rear access road clear.

Hundreds of riot police with clubs and shields kept a tense eye on the protesters, mostly from non-governmental organisations or people whose land or livelihood had been lost by ADB-funded projects, from behind other ranks of crowd-control barriers.

A smaller group of student demonstrators pushed the lines of riot police, who pushed back. About 100 students managed to scale a wall around the conference centre, but were quickly surrounded and staged a sit-in.

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