Deputy Prime Minister of Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Thongloun Sisoulith is very delighted at the growing relations between India and China.

There were a series of multilateral meetings in Manila that were organised by the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) where the PM said:

Laos has long-lasting friendship with both India and China. With regard to the rise of these two important countries, Lao PDR would see it in a very positive way, as the two countries will help strengthen our region.

The Hindu, an Indian newspaper reported that Laos was happy to “witness” the growth of India-China ties “from strength to strength” and that ASEAN too recognised their “contribution” to peace and stability in East Asia.

Further on India he said the following:

The Lao PDR appreciates the assistance rendered by the Government of India, particularly in providing us with credit and soft loans to be utilised in various development projects. Many of them are under implementation, and, of course, there would be more projects in the future.

Another important area is to enhance investment from India.

And, apart from the information technology sector, we would very much welcome investments by India in hydro-electric power plant construction as well as in the agricultural sector, in particular agro-processing.

Vientiane and New Delhi were now discussing the possible involvement of India in the construction of the Asian highway projects that would link the east-west and north-south economic corridors of Laos.

Seems like every country is happy with the growth in India and China in one way or another and all want to reap the benefits that accrue from it in one form or another.

Where do you think do the Multinationals look if they want to keep getting those dollars rolled in 24/7. It’s our two favorite nations on everyone’s “hit and hot list”.

To explain further we could talk about General Electric (GE) and its current move:

In China, GE appears to be making headway: The country is now one of the company’s largest foreign markets, with $5.4 billion in revenues last year, a nearly 4 times increase since 2001. GE has 12,000 employees in China and 23 joint ventures with Chinese firms

Presently the entire GE’s global businesses has a presence in India. Its revenues in India are close to US $ 1.7 billion. Employment across India exceeds 13,000.

By 2010, GE hopes its India business to improve to $8 billion - 16 per cent of the projected turnover of $50 billion from the emerging markets. Here is what the GE Chairman and Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt had to say on the sales prospects in India and China:

“

China is a centrally planned economy where there’s the prospect of large contracts, sold often through government organisations. We’re getting sales of $5bn-6bn a year in China and this is expanding fast. What we need to do in the next few years in China is go in a direction that you might label “downmarket”. By this I mean that at present we get a lot of sales in China by selling large projects such as big medical scanners. In healthcare, we probably sell $800m-$900m of systems such as these in China, along with related healthcare services. But we could probably double the total sales [in healthcare in China] if we had a bigger range of smaller, cheaper products that we could sell more widely. In India, GE’s sales are about half those in China. The economy here is driven by a buoyant entrepreneurial culture. The government doesn’t really add anything, apart from bureaucracy. So in approaching the business of selling there you have to use a different style to doing the same thing in China.”

His comments recently :

“The fastest growing countries for us are the emerging economies including China, India, Russia and Latin America….

Read here to know more on what GE Head has to say.

GE is securing its own light from China and India and so is the rest of the world.  C&I just needs to relax and keep encashing those FDI cheques as the world seems to be taking care of them for in turn securing themselves.

Sonia Gandhi spoke at the Tsinghua University in Beijing, on 27th Morning. I was there to know what she had to say on the two nations and their levels of “Optimism and Cooperation”.

She had lots on the subject showing the direction in which India is strengthening its relations with China:

Here she goes:

…Prime Minister Wen Jiabao put it succinctly and if I may so,  with the great empirical precision that China is noted for, and I quote—”during the past 2200 years, for about 99% of the time we have devoted to friendly cooperation between our two countries.”…

…”l see optimism in both India and China today; optimism about the progress our countries can make, optimism about realizing our goals of development, optimism about the levels of cooperation we can reach, optimism…
For the rest: Click address-of-congress-president.doc

India and China are the largest and third largest borrowers from the World Bank.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick is in favour of further lendings to India and China even if they were middle income countries attracting FDI at the rate that they are. However there were divergent views where U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson wants that the money should be available to low income countries in the real need for it.

Zoellick had this to say:

There are some 70% of the poor in middle-income countries. If we are going to deal with the poverty agenda, we need to be engaged with these countries.

[Also] if you look at what’s happening in the fields of diplomacy and political and security affairs, one of the big challenges is how we integrate the Indias, the Chinas and the Brazils [of the world] in the multilateral system? It strikes me as illogical that you would be trying to engage them in creating a new multilateral order, and not do it in the multilateral economic system.

The third point [is], let’s think of the other big issues of the day, like climate change. Well, China and India and Brazil and others have huge energy needs, so if we are going to be able to contribute to the big economic environmental challenges of the day, we’ve got to be partners with these countries. I can put skin into the financial game to help make this happen.

Now the critics:

Bloomberg reported the following on their site

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the World Bank should focus on lending to poor countries and trim funds for China, India and other middle- income nations that are luring private capital.

A growing number of middle-income countries are benefiting from improved access to private financial flows,” Paulson said in prepared remarks to the bank’s annual meeting in Washington.

We believe the World Bank can continue to help these countries but it will require that the World Bank become more focused, efficient and selective in seeking ways to provide its expertise where financing may no longer be required.

Middle-income countries accounted for more than half of the $23 billion in World Bank aid last year.

What we primarily give them is knowledge.

He added that “we can and should do both” lending to poor and middle-income countries. Paulson said the bank has often been slow and inefficient in deploying its resources, and he said it is “imperative” to improve reporting of the results of bank programs.

“It remains the central organizing principle for everything the bank does,” he said. The Treasury chief praised Zoellick’s efforts to enhance the bank’s role by putting $3.5 billion of its own funds into the International Development Association, the arm that makes low-interest loans to the world’s poorest countries.

The move represented a shift for the World Bank, which has relied on funding from governments. Zoellick also said last week that private companies may contribute.

“World Bank engagement should be limited to programs that clearly meet its core mission of promoting economic growth and poverty reduction,” Paulson said.

So today’s point of discussion is : do you think that world bank should continue giving loans to the developing nations in specific India and China or should there be a change brought about in this practice.

Numbers:(”5.0″,”4.9″, “%”)

A measure of inequality, the percentages are based on the Human Development Report, 2006.

Sonia Gandhi, the President of Indian National Congress will be here in Beijing on October 25th, 07 to meet Chinese Communist Party chief Hu Jintao who has just been named head of the ruling party for a second term.

India’s External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee also willl be arriving tommorrow in Harbin, capital of northeast China’s Heilongjiang province to attend the trilateral - India, China and Russia - foreign ministers’ meeting and they have lots on their agenda.

According to a Congress Secretary,

”The Chinese communist party has clarified that it appreciates the role of the Congress party in building up a good relationship between the two countries. Its invitation to the Congress president was an endorsement of it”.

We bring to you this Article from Rediff.com by Anil K Joseph, China Correspondent for Press Trust of India Beijing on what’s the entire visit about and the history of similar meetings before.

“….Both sides should expand the bilateral exchanges and cooperation, so as to benefit the people of the two countries as well as promoting peace and development in Asia and the world at large,” Hu said in his message to his Indian counterpart.

“I am willing to work hard together with you on enhancing the Sino-Indian strategic cooperative partnership, and to open this new chapter of friendship of good- neighbourliness and all-round cooperation between two countries in the new …

Read more HERE 

This was Ms. Gandhi’s second visit to China after 1996.

If you thought that businesses were only run in four walled shops/establishments or corporate houses with big price tags and that if you needed a doctor you would have to look out for a clinic/hospital, think again! India and China have a different story to offer you, you could find dentists on streets too and they had all “tools” that your treatment would require!

We bring to you India and China doing some “open” business below.

I am not amazed at India do this as have seen this happening many times but its interesting to watch the Chinese Dental Mechanics. Atleast one thing is sure - there’s still lots of similarity to discuss about them here with us.

Enjoy your weekend and do share if you (have) come across something like this.

Numbers:(”4.94″,”4.62″)

These are the average scores from amongst 125 countries, where India and China topped! Lower scores imply higer corruption, Check out !.

Yesterday was a day of Halla Gulla (turbulance in our context) for Indian Stock markets. Inspite of that they opened quite strongly this morning.

After the crashing of the Sensex, there were some clarifications brought on the PNotes front with regard to Roll Over of the outstanding notes.

Mr Damodran has expained them in an interview with Udyan Mukharjee at CNBC TV18 and you just need to be “logged” on to 2point6billion to catch whats happening in India/China. If its relevant its here!

Some excerpts from the Channel:

 Q: You are saying that all underlying futures positions held by P-Notes have no problem of rolling over from month-to-month for the next eighteen months, right?

A: Let me read to you what it is that it stated - it says that an outstanding PN with an Indian exchange traded derivative as underlying, can be renewed, subject to such reviewed PNs being wound up over a period of eighteen months. 

Q: Was it the case that you spoke to the top five or seven large issuers of P-Notes in this country and they refused to cooperate in disclosing the identities of their clients which is why you had to take this step otherwise you could have had a sunset clause for those P-Note investors to move towards an FII registry route after which they could not have done it, why did you not choose that route? 

Ans: ……

Watch this Video if you want to know what the Secuties Head had to say for India, for thats the benchmark for the future!

BSE -1,050.52 18,001.34 -5.84%

NSE -311.35 5,356.70 -5.81%

(The online Sensex graph of BSE is here)

Markets opened with a 10% down. It’s slowly recovering now. Everyone is anxious to know what’s more to happen!

I guess this was due. Though many had been waiting for the market to reach 20,000, much before Diwali ( a major Indian festival) and all thought it would but then we knew in which direction the wave was actually heading. Didn’t we?? 

On Tuesday, Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex ended 7 points lower at 19,051.86. National Stock Exchange’s Nifty ended down 2 points at 5668.05, making a high of 5708.35 and low of 5578.45.

And when we often asked ourselves : “Will the Sensex continue to rise at this fast pace? And will I profit from the Bull Run?” and the bullish that we are, SEBI shouts out another time. (more…)