The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : ‘Tamil identity must transcend caste, religious barriers’

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Wednesday, Jan 07, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

‘Tamil identity must transcend caste, religious barriers’

Staff Reporter

. — Photo: M. VEDHAN

Beginning: Finance Minister K. Anbazhagan lighting a lamp to inaugurate the World Tamils’ Economic Conference and Tamil Diaspora Meet – 2009 organised by Madras Development Society in Chennai on Tuesday

CHENNAI: Tamil culture can flourish only when the Tamil identity transcends caste and religious barriers, Finance Minister K. Anbazhagan said here on Tuesday. Furthermore, a deep-rooted sense of the Tamil identity would help to instil confidence, an essential quality of successful businesspersons.

He was delivering the inaugural address of the World Tamils Economic Conference and Tamil Diaspora Meet-2009 organised by the Madras Development Society.

The inaugural function was attended by 250 delegates from various countries, including Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Mauritius, Austria, England, South Africa and the United States, besides 150 Indian delegates, said V.R.S. Sampath, president, Madras Development Society.

The conference is aimed at promoting interaction and collaboration among Tamilians worldwide in language, culture, trade and business. The focus this year is on economics.

Welcoming this initiative, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi invited the businesspersons to invest in the State, and pledged support for initiatives of the conference to promote business.

Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K.V. Thangabalu said the Centre would support any scheme that would emerge from the conference.

The delegates spoke about the opportunities for expanding business ties across the geographical boundaries.

Bernie Ripoll, a Federal Member of Parliament, Australia, said India and Australia could collaborate to mitigate the effects of the current financial crisis.

“There is a potential for business to increase considerably,” he said, listing information and communication technology, biotechnology, education and media as fields that offered opportunities.

S. Samy Vellu, president, Malaysian Indian Congress, Malaysia, said value-added IT services had a lot of untapped potential in Malaysia. “Educational packages that offer English learning courses for children and online tuition packages are in great demand.” In addition, “mass market offerings such as IT services for small and medium enterprises need to be identified,” he said. This would help these enterprises in both Malaysia and India.

Prakaash M. Swami, secretary, New York Tamil Sangam, presented an autographed photograph of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to Mr. Sampath.

Mr. Sampath said a foundation would be established for conducting such conferences regularly. The next conference would be held in Kuala Lumpur.

G. Viswanathan, chancellor, Vellore Institute of Technology; Mahalingam Sinnathamby, chairman, Springfield Land Corporation, Australia; and R. Veeramani, president, Indo-Japan Chamber of Commerce, spoke.

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