VoordrachtNCH-NICCT-3mei05 - Rutger Koopmans

The NCH-NICCT reception on May 3, 2005

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great honour for me to be addressing you during this festive occasion of this first joint reception of the NCH and the Netherlands-India Chamber of Commerce and Trade.
I am equally delighted to have been appointed the new Chairman of the NICCT. On a personal level, it means that I will be closer and can devote more time to India: this most intriguing country, which is developing rapidly and has such a massive growth potential. I am pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to the growth in trade and trade relations between India and the Netherlands – growth which will bring many mutual benefits to both countries and its inhabitants.

From the perspective of ING Group, my appointment is also received with great joy and perceived as an opportunity, Also ING Group has high ambitions with respect to developing its business attachments with India, through our investment in Vysya Bank, and the promising developments of that business. Like so many other companies nowadays, India is in the midsth of our thinking where it concerns a number of business topics, such as IT-outsourcing and looking for new growth.

We all know that India has one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Since 1990, it has achieved an excellent average growth rate of 6 per cent, which accelerated to a decade-high of 8 percent in the 2003/2004 fiscal year.
That growth is expected to remain robust this year, albeit perhaps at a lower level dus to high oil prices and the world economic outlook.

The challenge for India in the coming years will be to enter a new phase of higher-trend growth as well as to meet the government’s objective of boosting growth to a level of more than 8 percent on a sustainable basis. This is a challenging target, but we can already see positive indications that it is achievable, as the IMF stated in its recent report on the Indian economy.

Infrastructure and education are two of the structural factors which are essential to keeping India on the desired growth path. With the progress being made, a rapid sustainable growth will be within reach.

We can already see the positive results, as India becomes more integrated into global and regional production value chains. This is illustrated by the growth in Indian merchandise exports, which has exceeded 20 percent per annum in three of the past four years, and software service exports, which have grown by almost 30 percent per annum over the past two years.

I personally am convinced that India indeed is and will stay one of the economic superpowers in the twenty-first century. A recent study by Goldman Sachs which was recently brought to my attention predicts that India will be in third place, after superpowers USA and China, by 2032. One interesting highlight of their findings was the remarkable and largely underappreciated growth potential for India, because investors and corporations have focussed much too intensively on China.

India is indeed a fast-growing country, and one which is full of interesting opportunities, which also offer many very interesting lessons to be learned. I attended a speech by Mrs. Padmasri Jaya Arunachalam, President of the Working Women’s Forum Chennai India, who presented a very interesting lecture at the meeting of the Economic Faculty of Rotterdam two weeks ago. For an audience of over 400 young students she spoke about her work, her organisation, her involvement with microfinance, and of the developments that have taken place over the past few years. These students listened to her in great silence and admiration, which once again showed me that the ‘messages from India’ are well understood by many people in this country.

Given the rapid growth of the Indian economy, the volume of trade between India and the Netherlands is still surprisingly modest. In terms of total Dutch goods imports and exports, Netherlands-India trade represented only one half of one per cent in 2004. Over the past ten years, this proportion has shown only slight growth.

The question now is: how can we boost trade between India and the Netherlands and reach full potential? How can we benefit more from the economic strengths of both countries? This is the moment for us to invest our energy, time and assets, to make the most of the available opportunities.

In my day-to-day contacts with large and medium sized companies in the Netherlands, both large and small, I note that India is acquiring an increasing presence in their lines of thoughts. As well as showing a growing interest in the new opportunities which are being created, some are still looking for the right approach, the right expertise and the right contacts. The NICCT was created to help them in their search. Now that the NICCT and NCH have joined forces, I am convinced that our activities will have even greater impact in the future.

It is the ambition of the NICCT, in partnership with the NCH, to be the focal point for contacts and information concerning Indian-Dutch trade and business relations. We can benefit from each other’s knowledge, skills and networks. At a practical level, we plan to develop these opportunities still further in the course of our next trade mission to India. I would hope that many of you and many others would accompany us on that trade mission.

I am certain that, with your spirit of enterprise, supported by the knowledge and networking capabilities of the NICCT, many business opportunities will be realised in the near future.

Thank you for your attention.

Rutger Koopmans
Chairman of the NICCT

© 3 mei 2005