Minister Mentor of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew walks past a portrait of Jawaharlal Nehru after delivering the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial lecture in New Delhi on Monday. — PTI

New Delhi: "Whether Asia will take its place in the world as [Jawaharlal] Nehru wanted depends on how both India and China work together as they rise and actively set out to avoid ending up in opposing camps," Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said on Monday.

Delivering the 37th Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Lecture in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Mr. Lee said it was "vital" that India and China understand where they stand vis-à-vis each other.

"They [the two countries] must not be paranoid and suspicious of each other in a game of one-upmanship. Instead they can cooperate and compete economically, and each improve its performance by using the other's progress as benchmarks for what they should do better," the former Prime Minister said.

Pointing out that bilateral relations between New Delhi and Beijing had improved significantly in recent years, Mr. Lee said the rise of India and China was changing the global balance. "Together, they account for 40 per cent of the world's working age population and 19 per cent of the global economy in PPP (purchasing power parity) terms."

"On present trends, in 20 years, their collective share of the global economy will match their percentage of the global population, which is roughly where they were in the 18th Century, before European colonialism engulfed them," he said.

Speaking on the theme of "India in an Asian Renaissance," Mr. Lee said China's illiteracy rate was below 10 per cent, India's was about 40 per cent. Three years ago, China had a capital outlay of $ 260 billions on electricity, construction, transportation, telecommunications and real estate (20 per cent of GDP) while India spent just $ 31 billions (8 per cent of GDP).

`Coalescing' East Asia

According to him, East Asia was "coalescing", brought together by market forces. "India, China and Japan are readjusting their relationships with each other and with the U.S. [United States]. This will not be an easy process because all countries want to preserve their independence and space to grow."

"If there are no mishaps by 2050, the U.S., China, India and Japan will be economic heavyweights, as will Russia if it converts its revenue from oil and gas into long term value in infrastructure and non-oil industries," he predicted.

The U.S. was courting a "nuclear India," he pointed out and said India could no longer be dismissed as a "wounded civilisation" — as termed by a westernised Non-Resident Indian, V.S. Naipaul.

While appreciating India's economic successes, he said the nation cannot grow into a major economy on the strength of services alone. "Since the industrial revolution, no country has become a major economy without becoming an industrial power."

Targeting India's bureaucrats for remaining regulators and not turning into facilitators, he said democracy should not be made an alibi for inertia.

"India's elite in politics, the media, the academia and think tanks can re-define the issues and recast the political debate," he added.

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