Beyond just cricket and Bollywood
Economic Times, India
Beyond just cricket and Bollywood
By Mythili Bhusnurmath, TNN
16 July 2007
The India-China comparison has become almost passé with western audiences in the past few years. But in countries like New Zealand where ties with China, particularly economic ties, have traditionally been far stronger than with India, the comparison is relatively new and India often comes a poor second, especially in the eyes of New Zealand Inc.
Efforts by the government and our chambers of commerce to improve India’s image and increase its visibility at international forums like the World Economic Forum at Davos have worked to some extent. But there’s always that lurking suspicion of spin when countries do the selling themselves. Imagine how much more effective it would be if a third party, an impartial commentator, were to do that job for you! Well that’s exactly what happened and at a venue where greater awareness of the New India is bound to go a long way because it’s such a largely unknown story. The venue: the Action Asia Business Summit in Auckland, New Zealand last week.
The Summit organised by the Asia-New Zealand Foundation, a non-profit, apolitical body aimed at promoting greater understanding between the small island nation and its Asian neighbours, saw New Zealand Inc turn out in strength. And listen in pin drop silence as keynote speaker Clyde Prestowitz, founder and president of the Economic Strategy Institute, Washington, gave the most ringing endorsement of India any Indian could possibly have wished for.
Prestowitz’s endorsement, which was seconded by ANZ Bank CEO, John McFarlane the next day, is unlikely to change perceptions overnight or lead to a dramatic increase in bilateral trade and investment. But it could be a beginning. India is presently no more than a small dot on New Zealand Inc’s economic radar and vice versa.
Bilateral trade between the two countries is pitiably small - less than half a billion NZ dollars compared to more than seven billion NZ dollars between New Zealand and China. Awareness of the Indian market in New Zealand Inc is limited and not very positive either. India is often seen (quite rightly) as a difficult market to enter. But the good thing is the increasing number of Kiwi companies like Vista Entertainment Solutions, Cadmus Payment Solutions, Fisher and Paykel Healthcare, to mention just a few, that have formed successful relationships with Indian companies. And, better still, have no doubt whatsoever that it’s been more than worth their while to have hung in even as others walked away.
Unfortunately, their numbers are still far too few to make a material difference to bilateral economic ties. But that could change and change dramatically if both countries realise how much there is to gain from their shared colonial heritage, democratic form of government, common language and rule of law. The first step to that is to increase awareness in each other’s markets and the Action Asia Summit, more particularly Prestowitz and McFarlane’s frank admiration for what India has achieved and awe for its future potential is likely to provide the much-needed impetus.
India’s call centres are well known and not always highly regarded. So imagine the reaction of the audience when Prestowitz described how after a serious accident in the US, his emergency brain scan was read by a doctor in Bangalore! You could almost hear the collective intake of breath in the jam-packed hall.
The moment is certainly opportune. India’s ‘Look East’ policy gels perfectly with New Zealand’s ‘Seriously Asia’ programme that aims to take ties with Asia to a new level. Moreover, though the New Zealand and US economies have surprisingly similar problems - and growing current account deficits, negative household savings, over-valued asset markets, notably housing, and over-valued currencies - they have a completely different approach to tackling them.
The difference is that while the US, despite the lip service of its leaders about the need to address its current account imbalance, is unwilling to do anything (remember that famous ‘our currency, your problem’ quote of John Connolly, former US Treasury Secretary in the 1970s?), New Zealand is trying to play a far more proactive role. It is assiduously trying to develop new markets for its exports. And almost by definition, that means looking more seriously at opportunities in Asia, particularly relatively unexploited markets like India.
Today that might seem too far into the future. The Indian market is almost inconsequential for New Zealand businesses. Likewise, New Zealand stands for little more than cricket and Bollywood as far as India Inc is concerned. But that could change and change dramatically if the unmistakable stirring of interest in trade and economic ties between the two countries at the Summit in Auckland is anything to go by. There’s the possibility of a free trade agreement on the horizon and both countries are founder members of the East Asia Summit, so it’s only a matter of time before both sets of corporates learn to look beyond cricket and Bollywood!
