Pokharan may cast a long shadow over CII summit

VK Chakravarti

Ahmedabad, Dec 31: Post-Pokhran II developments have apparently forced heads of governments to shy away from the Partnership Summit 1999 to be hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at Jaipur from January 7, 1999, to January 9, 1999. Since 1995, the summits, projected as CII's once-a-year flagship international event, are known to have provided domestic industry a common platform to interface with statesmen, business leaders, academics and bureaucrats from a specific country on one-to-one basis. The Jaipur summit is slated to be the biggest, as delegations from five nations are participating in it, against just one or two in the past. But each time, the delegations were led by the president or prime minister of the respective nations.

However, the CII western region, Gujarat chapter, director Sunil Parikh still expects some heads of states to participate in the Jaipur summit. Delegations from each of the five nations will be headed by senior ministers, given the importance of the summit'stheme, `Preparing for the New Millennium'. Other issues to be discussed include the Asian crisis, the emergence of super blocs -- threat or opportunity, free-trade protectionism, India and USA -- building a new relationship, equity-driven growth for domestic companies, and a special session on the Middle East.

The largest foreign contingents will be led by Portugal's minister of commerce Joaquim Pina Moura and Thailand's deputy prime minister Supachai Panitchpakdi. The other national delegations are coming from Switzerland, Qatar and the UAE. Guest speakers from other countries who have confirmed their participation include European Commission vice-president Leon Brittan, South Africa's minister for posts and telecom Jay Naidoo, Palestine national authority minister for planning and international cooperation Nabil Sha-ath, the US department of state senior adviser (South Asia bureau) George Pickart, the French Senate economic and social committee chairman Jean-Francois Poncet, and the US ambassador to IndiaStephen Cohen. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has been invited to inaugurate the summit, to be addressed, among others, by Jaswant Singh, RK Hegde, George Fernandes, and former prime minister IK Gujral. While the chief ministers of Rajasthan, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, and Himachal Pradesh have given their consent, that from Gujarat is still awaited. Parekh said that while no delegate fee will be charged from small-scale industry entrepreneurs, a nominal one will be charged from young managers (below 35) for the summit. Singapore prime minister Goh Chok Tong had led a 60-member delegation to the 1995 summit in Calcutta, addressed by PV Narasimha Rao. Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien had led a 400-member business delegation to the 1996 summit in Mumbai, inaugurated by former president Shankar Dayal Sharma.

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