India should continue to take efforts to increase manufacturing capability and identify areas where it can march ahead of China. “We should leverage our strengths,” said Tamil Nadu IndustriesSecretary CV Sankar.

“We can never catch up with China in terms of manufacturing capability or in research and development spending, but can learn a lot from them rather than trying to ape them,” he said at a CII seminar on ‘The India-China Growth Story – Harnessing the emerging business potential’.

Food processing and agro processing are sectors where India can be a leader with the Central and State government providing support by creating international standard infrastructure, he said.

Officials at the Centre often talk about ease of starting business and compare Tamil Nadu with other States. However, ease of doing business is equally important and requires continuous policy changes, peaceful industrial relations, high quality labour and infrastructure. In key parameters such as power, Internet penetration, fibre optical cable or any issue that requires business to survive, Tamil Nadu will consistently be on top, he said. Sankar said between 2000 and 2016, Tamil Nadu attracted Foreign Direct Investment worth $21 billion. Of this, nearly $14 billion have come in the last five years. “When India is growing, Tamil Nadu grows better than India,” he said.

At Global Investors Meet held last year, 98 Memorandum of Understandings committing investment worth ₹2.42 lakh crore were signed and 54 companies have already invested around ₹24,000 crore.

Li Baijun, Commercial and Economic Counsellor, Embassy of China in India, said despite sluggish global economy, trade cooperation between China and India is showing upswing. On trade imbalance between two countries, the Chinese government has attached great importance to this problem and trying to solve it by organising trade fairs and encouraging Chinese companies to invest in India, he said.

Sridhar Venkiteswaran, Member, CII Core Group on China and Executive Director, Avalon Consulting, said FDI from China to India in the last four years quadrupled to nearly $426 million in fiscal 2016.

Human resources

K Venugopal, Co-Chairman, Entrepreneurship Sub-committee, CII Southern Region, said with vast pool of human resources and huge domestic markets, India and China are destined to play a significant role in global economy.

Chinese manufacturing prowess and India’s software genius are two complementary capabilities. The two countries, therefore, have the scope and the need to work together and rebalance the flow of trade and investment between them, he said.

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