The Hindu : India, EU committed to dynamic dialogue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 27, 2004

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India, EU committed to dynamic dialogue

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 26. India and the European Union are committed to an equal and dynamic dialogue on all subjects of interest and concern to them including ICT as major entities in their own regions, and as emerging global actors on the world stage, Erkki Liikanen, European Commissioner for Enterprise and IT, said today.

Speaking at the concluding session of the three-day Euro India 2004, organised jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the European Commission, he observed that the EU was already one of India's major partners in terms of trade and actual investment inflows and was in the front rank of its partners in the fields of economic and development cooperation.

Mr. Liikanen said there was a shift towards a networked and knowledge based economy, however the key question was what should and could be the contribution of public policies to create an environment that stimulates innovation, competitiveness and growth. The challenge lies in successfully articulating the policy components such as the legal framework, economic regulation at different levels of policy making in the most efficient manner, he said.

V. S. Ramamurthy, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, said the technology that exists now was still in an infant stage. "The potential of ICT is huge and we have just touched the tip of the iceberg," he said adding that it had deep and broad penetration capacity and for that to happen, R & D would be the key.

Philip McDonagh, Irish Ambassador to India, said the main concern today was how to drive broadband demand by creating the right enabling environment and services.

He said broadband had the potential to impact the lives of the people and therefore called for more R &D between India and Europe.

PTI reports:

Short-term visa issues

India today raised the issue of short term visas for skilled manpower, particularly IT professionals, with the European Union, which in turn assured Indians it would look into the matter for mutual benefit.

"The only thing that we have been requesting the EU is about the visa problem. Indian professionals, who need to go to EU countries for deployment of software, their short-term visa takes three to four months. In world of IT a few months can be fatal,'' Minister for IT and Communications, Arun Shourie, said after the third India-EU working group meeting on IT here.

Mr. Liikanen, EU Commissioner, said, "In short term visa issues there have been difficulties. In Europe we have the permanent visa which is relatively easier to get but the short-term issues are more difficult. I will pass this message to my colleagues in EU to pass this to member states.''

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