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Law of Diminishing 'Returns' hits CII summits

Amberish K Diwanji in New Delhi

The Confederation of Indian Industry Partnership Summit 2000 started with a bang, but the inauguration was extremely low-key as compared to previous summits. This is an annual event; the first jamoboree was held in Calcutta in 1995.

The Calcutta summit was followed by summits in Bombay, Madras, Jaipur and now in New Delhi. It would appear that each summit has been a smaller affair than the previous ones. Those who were present at the Calcutta summit admit that it was the largest summit, a show that also marked 100 years of the CII in the city of its birth.

For instance, this summit has no partner, the second time in a row that such a thing has happened. The summits at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras all boasted of at least one partner country and the list includes the United Kingdom, Singapore, Poland, Italy and Canada.

Moreover, the previous summits (except Jaipur) were addressed by visiting heads of states or governments. The tallest name that the New Delhi summit can boast of is Mike Moore, director-general of the World Trade Organisation.

However, minister or secretaries of trade from quite a few countries are present, such as the United Kingdom, South Africa, and the Netherlands. There is also a fair presence of academics, liberalisation gurus Jefferey Sachs and Krishna Palepu, both from the Harvard University.

The CII summit got off to a start with External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh addressing the gathering. Singh, clearly the biggest name among the invitees, spoke about the need for ensuring that the benefits of globalisation reached everyone.

However, it was the presence of Mike Moore, who spoke about the need to continue the work that was aborted at Seattle, that caused much action today.

His presence at the summit and in Delhi had an electric effect on both the audience and trade unions in the city.

Various trade unions, led by the Centre for Indian Trade Unions (affiliated to the Communist Party of India-Marxist), held demonstrations outside the venue of the Partnership Summit early in the morning. The demonstrators raised slogans against the WTO and Moore, asking him to go back to Geneva.

But unlike Seattle, the demonstrators, after voicing their concern and their ire about the role of the WTO, left peacefully.

Later, Moore did speak about making the WTO more transparent and open. He pointed out that he had once again begin consulting the various governments and, acknowledging India's importance as a leader of the developing world, said the visit to India was the first visit to another country after the Seattle fiasco.

Moore also told the media that he would be calling on top Indian leaders, but refused to give names. And though it was not scheduled, Moore held an impromptu press conference, answering a few questions, after the journalists present at the venue forced him to do so.

CII president Rahul Bajaj had earlier said that rather than have huge sessions with big names giving general speeches, the focus would be on more specific sessions since that is what the CII members preferred. "The idea is to answer specific issues that are addressed by specialists and experienced hands in those areas," he had said.

While CII officials are chary about giving reasons for the low attendance at the present summit, observers are also pointing to what can best be called a 'seminar fatigue'. Only last month, CII had organised a massive insurance summit, just prior to the Insurance Regulation and Development Authority Bill being introduced in the Lok Sabha.

Then, barely a few days later, in mid-December, CII and the World Economic Forum jointly held another summit, which saw the presence of most of the top industrialists from India and a fair amount from abroad, at the same venue as the Partnership Summit.

"Having another summit so soon is really tiring to everyone and how many businessmen can keep attending these summits so frequently?" pointed out an observer. A CII official too agreed that the past few weeks had seen too many summits for comfort.

And at each summit, much of what is being said is quite the same: reform faster, open up further, encourage competition, or else investment will go elsewhere.

UNI

India and the WTO

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