On the eve of the national holiday – the 16th anniversary of the Independence of Uzbekistan – Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of India to the Republic of Uzbekistan H.E. Mr. Skand R. Tayal in an interview with UzReport.com correspondent shared his views on the Indo-Uzbek bilateral relations.

- Dear Mr. Ambassador, let me congratulate you and people of India on the occasion of National Holiday – Independence Day, celebrated on August 15 (since 1947), and wish everyone and country peace, welfare and prosperity.

- Thank you very much for your good wishes.

- Please tell us about internal and external economic achievements of India for the last years in such fields as advanced and computer technologies, know how, economics, industry, transport and telecommunications, culture and art. What results have already been achieved and what are perspective plans?

- India celebrated its 60th Independence on 15th August 2007. During the last six decades India has traveled a long distance on the path of progress and there are many successes and achievements especially in the area of social and economic development.

India is of Continental size and the diversity in the country is even greater than that of a Continent! India’s most significant achievement in the last 60 years has been its political cohesion and stability. In a country of over a billion people, Indian nationalism has triumphed over the divisive tendencies of caste, class, religion and languages. The Idea that human beings of different languages, cultures, religions, etc. came together in a democratic way and are united, is wonderful.

Today, India is on its way of becoming the 4th largest market in the world, has a comfortable foreign exchange reserve, has developed indigenous technology in Space, nuclear energy and IT sector, and is sought as a strategic partner by major countries of the world.

As one of the world’s largest economies, India has made enormous strides in its economic and social development particularly in the last two decades. Today’s India is a place of opportunity, growth and prosperity. Indian companies are making their mark at the global level and are competing confidently with the multinational companies in almost every field.

India started liberalizing and de-regulating its economy in 1991. One and half decades after the liberalization of the Indian economy, India’s global integration and economic growth is now unstoppable. Today, India is one of the world’s fastest growing free market economies, averaging a GDP growth of 8 to 9% over the last 3 years. Today India is a world leader in Information Technology, Pharmaceuticals, higher educational institutions, automobile spare parts and trained manpower. India has emerged as one of the favourite investment destinations among various multinational companies. Higher disposable incomes, emerging middle class, low cost competitive work force, a booming economy, large domestic market and investment friendly policies all contribute towards India being a favourite choice for investors.

In the manufacturing sector also India has emerged as a major player due to low labour cost, flexible and business-friendly environment, encouragement to entrepreneurship and availability of required infrastructure. Indian manufacturing companies have been proved second to none and are competing successfully in global market. Our Uzbek friends have been using Indian pharmaceutical products with full satisfaction. Our quality is assured and the prices are competitive and studies have shown that setting up a pharmaceutical plant in India is 40% cheaper as compared to developed countries.

India has many highly educated and professionally qualified people who are making their mark domestically and globally in Science, Engineering, Information Technology and Research & Development.

India is becoming a major source of R&D, about 100 multi-national Corporations have already set up their R&D Centers in India, leading to enhancement of the technological and innovative capabilities among Indian firms.

Similarly, India has witnessed the Telecom Revolution. Fierce price competition has resulted in Indian mobile telephony becoming one of the cheapest in the world, with subscription of more than 47 million people.

The economic platform of India is vast and all the factors of production are available within the country. To lead the country to become a developed nation, the leadership of our country is now working on the long-term planning to further enhance our infrastructural facilities. Future perspective of our nation is to transform India into a developed nation by the year 2020.

- The peoples of India and Uzbekistan share ancient friendly, trade, economic and cultural bilateral relations, rooted in centuries old traditions and history. Your Excellency, please tell us about the most important results of Indo-Uzbek cooperation of the last years and perspectives of our cooperation in economy, transport, tourism, culture and art (in particular with Uzbekistan Academy of Arts), people-to people diplomacy, as well as of cooperation in the framework of bilateral intergovernmental commission.

- The close friendly relations between India and Uzbekistan are characterized by mutually beneficial all round cooperation. The friendly relations between India and Uzbekistan are grounded in the commitment towards global peace and regional stability, and are based on our shared historical and cultural ties. Both our countries share common values such secularism, religious tolerance and strong opposition to the forces of fundamentalism and extremism. Our cooperation is evident by the signing of nearly 60 bilateral agreements in various fields. Both countries are marching on the road towards rapid social and economic development in an environment of increasing globalization and we wish to transform our cultural and historical ties into strong economic and commercial linkages. The close ties between our countries were reinforced by the important visit of H.E. President Islam Karimov to India in April 2005 and the highly successful visit of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to Tashkent in April 2006.

Both India and Uzbekistan are on the path of progress and development and are working to improve the quality of life of their citizens. Though Uzbekistan falls in the extended neighbourhood of India, it is more like a neighbour in practical terms, because flying time from Delhi to Tashkent is around 2½ hours, which is even less than domestic travel between some of Indian cities.

Trade and economic links between our countries are also as old as our cultural and historical ties. The Great Silk Route used to be the historical road to connect India to the Central Asia and East Asian countries. At the present time also we have good trade and economic links but absence of a safe and direct land route between Tashkent and North India is a handicap. We are working with the Government of Uzbekistan to develop the land route to the Iranian port of Chabahar through northern and eastern Afghanistan. Once this route is fully developed, it would facilitate transit of goods between our two countries.

We seek to promote greater investment by Indian companies in Uzbekistan in various fields. An example has been set by an Indian company Spentex by investing US$81 million in the textiles companies near Tashkent. This shows the seriousness of the Indian companies to invest in Uzbekistan.

The current state of trade between our countries does not conform to the requisite potential. Despite the global size of Indian economy, the bilateral trade was only US$ 61 million in 2006. Our endeavour is to bring the trade, investment and commercial ties between both the countries to the level of sizable business partnership. Our companies can make investment in the areas in which Uzbekistan has raw materials available and export the finished and semi-finished products to India and to third countries.

With the strong initiatives of private sector also, India has established itself well in the field of higher education. The seven Indian Institutes of Technology. The National Law School, Bangalore, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are the top institutes of India and rank among the best in the world. Our relations in the sphere of education are also on the path of progress. To enlarge collaboration in the academic field, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Delhi University (DU) and the Tashkent Institute of Oriental Studies (TSIOS) during the visit of Prime Minister of India H.E. Dr. Manmohan Singh to Uzbekistan in April, 2006. Cooperation between DU and TSIOS is being pursued and some fruitful joint projects are expected to be undertaken in near future.

Also, Government of India is committed to the human resource development of Uzbekistan and we are conducting an educational training programme "Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) to impart training in the areas of IT, banking, management, finance, etc. We are sending 120 professionals from Uzbekistan every year to India under ITEC Programme to attend various courses fully financed by the Government of India.

There have been equally encouraging people to people contacts between our countries. We have an "India Chair" at the prestigious University of World Economy & Diplomacy (UWED), and the UWED is collaborating with the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) New Delhi under an MOU signed during the visit of H.E. President Islam Karimov to India in April 2005.

The India-Uzbek IT Centre named after Jawaharlal Nehru established in Tashkent University of Information Technology with the Indian financial assistance of Rs.30 million was inaugurated by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh during his visit to Uzbekistan in April 2006. Till now the Centre has successfully trained 400 students.

The Information Technology sector of Uzbekistan has a lot of potential and this area can be of cooperation for investment. Indian software and business processing outsourcing firms are the best in the world. From Uzbekistan, Indian companies can cover the entire CIS region by providing IT enabled services, which will generate employment for the local population.

Automobile sector of India is booming and the component suppliers in India are world class and their clientele includes many internationally renowned auto producers. Our effort now is to encourage our companies to establish joint ventures here and supply components to the growing Uzbek automobile sector.

The Medical Tourism is the new area which is rapidly growing in India. Today we have world class modern medical facilities at one tenth of the cost of US or Europe. The most complicated medical services by the best doctors are available in India today which is comparable to the best available services in the world. Being geographically so close India can serve as a good destination for medical treatment of Uzbek nationals at a very reasonable cost.

Uzbekistan is a country of ancient civilization and custodian of many historic and cultural heritage sites which can be promoted as tourist destinations among the Indian tourists. There is a need to generate demand by way of publicity about these unique places. Similarly, India is one of the favorite tourist destinations in the world. Recently, Taj Mahal has been voted as one of the Seven Wonders of the World in an internationally held poll. We expect that the inflow of Uzbek tourists to India to see Taj Mahal will increase in the near future.

Our cultural relations are nourished by Lal Bahadur Shastri Indian Cultural Centre functioning in Tashkent as part of our Embassy. The centre is engaged in the teaching of Hindi, Yoga, Indian Music and Dance to the Uzbek youths. The People of Uzbekistan have a unique respect and liking for Indian culture.

Our countries are victim of the menace of terrorism and understand the danger that terrorism pose to the security and stability of the world. Recognizing the importance of bilateral cooperation in this vital area, India and Uzbekistan have established a Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism in 2003 and till now three very useful meetings of this JWG have been held. The Third Meeting of India-Uzbekistan Joint Working Group on Combating Terrorism was held during May 2007 in Tashkent.

Our cooperation under the framework of bilateral Inter-Governmental Commission is also progressing satisfactorily. The Seventh Session of the Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade Economic, Scientific and Technological Cooperation between India and Uzbekistan was held on 13-14 April, 2007 in Tashkent. The Indian delegation was led by Hon’ble Minister of State for Commerce Shri Jairam Ramesh and Mr. Abdulla Aripov, Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan co-chaired the session from Uzbek side. Both sides reviewed the implementation of the decisions of the sixth Session of the Commission. The Commission discussed further expansion in the cooperation on trade and investment between both the countries in the fields of textiles, cotton fibre processing, production of knit and readymade garments, production of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, leather processing and production of leather, agro-products, information technology, oil and gas, minerals and metals and development of SMEs etc. Both sides also discussed cooperation in financial and transport sector including Railways, culture, tourism and consular matters. On the sidelines of IGC meetings, a business forum was also organised in which leading public and private sector companies and representatives from apex Chambers of Commerce and Industry from both the sides participated.

- Please share your impressions of stay in Uzbekistan. What have you already got to know, what does interest you the most in our country and what are its attractive features? What wishes do you have for the people of Uzbekistan?

- I am very impressed by your beautiful country. I find that your cities are clean, well planned and with lots of green spaces to provide a healthy and unpolluted environment. I have traveled a lot with in Uzbekistan and have seen many ancient and medieval heritage sites including in Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, Karshi, Namangan, etc. What attracts me the most is the warm and kind hearted people of Uzbekistan and the fondness and love they show for India.

Uzbekistan is a country with an ancient civilization. The collections of scientific centres and museums in different parts of the country contain numerous manuscripts and objects that testify to the distinctive and centuries old history of the area. It is a very interesting historical fact to observe that Buddhism spread throughout East Asia and countries of the Far-East from the ancient city of Termez, major centre of Buddhism in Central Asia during the Kushan Period.

There is so much in common between the people of Uzbekistan and India. Hundreds of words are common between Uzbek and Hindi languages. Uzbek architects and craftsmen have left a lasting legacy in the historic monuments of North India, particularly in Agra and New Delhi. I very much admire the quality of your miniature paintings, calligraphy and ceramics – a skill which goes back to centuries in Uzbek history.

It is really heart warming for me to observe the love for Indian art, music and films among the people of your country. From big cities to rural areas, I have personally witnessed the interest with which Uzbeks watch Indian films, sing Indian songs and dance to Indian music. This is mainly because we share similar family values and have similar cultural interests.

Taking this opportunity I would like to congratulate the readers of your paper on the 16th Independence Day of Uzbekistan and wish them peace, prosperity and a great future ahead. In the last 16 years of Independence Uzbekistan has achieved notable successes in every field, specially in the socio-economic sphere and it is a matter of great satisfaction for India as well that your country, under the able leadership of President H.E. Mr. Islam Karimov is progressing towards greater heights of development and well being.