The Hindu Business Line : `India must get its basics right for more global trade'

THE gap between India and China, in relation to world market share, is widening and will continue to do so if the differences in culture and infrastructure between the two countries remain as they are, according to Prof Egon B. Heil, Professor of Marketing, University of Rosenheim, Germany.

Prof Heil is in Chennai to conduct a two-day workshop, `How to succeed in national and international marketing' organised by the FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) with support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF). Talking to newspersons between sessions, Prof Heil said India needed to wake up to the serious threat that the country's exports faced in the world market.

He prescribed a "back to basics" programme, which would help every Indian clean up his act - - starting with cleanliness, going on to punctuality, reliability and the ability to speak one foreign language other than English.

Based on figures from the Direction of Trade Statistics Yearbook - 1996-2001 issued by the International Monetary Fund, Prof Heil said that though both the countries were able to increase their world share between 1990 and 2000, due to the differences in culture and infrastructure, the development in China was more dynamic than in India.

In 1990, China's exports were $62 billion, which grew to $249 billion in 2000 while market share grew from 1.8 per cent to 3.9 per cent in the same period. India's exports in 1990 were $18 billion and this grew to $42 billion in 2000, the market share grew from 0.5 per cent to 0.7 per cent during the same period.

The main export markets for both these countries were the US, Hong Kong and Japan but the quantum of Chinese exports was far higher - 55.5 per cent more than that of Indian exports, Prof Heil said.

Prof Heil pointed out that in 2000, 11.9 per cent of Chinese exports, and 19.8 per cent of Indian exports were shipped to five European Union countries, compared 20.9 per cent of Chinese and 23.8 per cent of Indian exports to the US.

Out of the 12 export markets for India and China, five are located in Asia, accounting for 43.4 per cent of total Chinese exports, but only for 19 per cent of total Indian exports, indicating superiority and dominance by China in Asia today.

Speaking at the inauguration of the workshop, Prof Rangaranjan K. Sundaram, Associate Professor of Finance, Stern School of Business, New York University, said that the only way to survive in the international market was to produce world-class products. In the services sector, Jet Airways' in-flight service was comparable with the best in the world, Prof Rangaranjan said.

He said that the software industry in the India had been incredibly successful and this was by selling quality. This industry was able to change the perception of India, he said.

Ms Sudha Ravi, FLO, HSF Coordinator, Chennai Chapter, said that these workshops helped familiarise participants with the prevailing trends in the international markets.

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