 Ladies and gentlemen, I wish to extend a warm welcome on the opening of the 28th India Economic Summit. The team of this year's meeting from deliberation to transformation represents people's shared dreams, ambitions and principles that we cherish and want to put into place. This summit has become a significant annual event on the Indian calendar and has continued to the economic and industrial development of India and the promotion of understanding and collaboration between the international and the Indian business community. Today the World Economic Forum's engagement in India not only holds our second largest membership base of companies worldwide but also the second largest number of young global leaders and social entrepreneurs. Reflecting our identity as a neutral multi-stakeholder platform for leaders from all walks of life. The meeting will be an opportunity after an intense year of national debate to outline a blueprint for a post-crisis India. The aim is to create a new model of pragmatic, practical and effective governance that rebuilds trust both in India and the broader South Asian region to link leadership with livelihoods. Just as the World Economic Forum has stood by India so too has Canada with its long-standing bilateral ties built upon shared values of democracy and pluralism. Since becoming Prime Minister of Canada in 2006 Stephen Harper has made the most of Canada's many opportunities and in the midst of the worst global economic crisis since the 1930s Prime Minister Harper has demonstrated resolve and determination. Under his leadership Canada has made great progress over the last few years and has emerged from the recession with its competitiveness improved and with its strongest financial position among the G7 countries. Canada's strong competitiveness rating is based not only on economic factors but also on key contextual factors including high trust in garment and decision-makers and the banking system that is seen as the most stable in the world. Prime Minister your commitment to growth and open markets has been a constant feature of your political outlook and indeed you have called for policies that places great emphasis on these values each time you have joined us here at the World Economic Forum. It is therefore my great honour Mr. Prime Minister to invite you now to share your insights on these important issues. Thank you. Thank you very much. Merci beaucoup. Bon matin. Good morning. Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Before I began I should just like to extend a few greetings. First of all to the Canadian business delegation I want to thank all of you for making time in your busy schedules to support our government's trade and investment mission to India. It is much appreciated. Also to members of our government caucus who have joined me ministers Ed Fass, Tim Uppel and Bal Gossel, Senators Ashes Seth and Tobias and Verga, members of Parliament Deepak O'Brien, Nina Greywald, Devinder Shorri, Parm Gill and Kyle Seabag. Thank you for coming and also good to see my old friend and colleague Stockwell Day here as well. Great to see Stock again. Finally I'm sorry to learn that Professor Schwab cannot be with us today however I'm pleased to once more meet with the World Economic Forum's managing director Borge Brande and Borge I look forward to our discussion in a few minutes. Loreen and I visited India in 2009 and I have to tell you ladies and gentlemen that it left quite an impression. The first thing you realize is that one trip cannot possibly be enough to even scrape the surface of this large and fascinating civilization so it really is a pleasure to be back. It's also a pleasure to be back at the World Economic Forum, a place where a great many people who want to make a difference, difference regularly come to meet and I'm delighted to see that you also have chosen to be in India, a place where globally important decisions are increasingly being made. There is a long time before our last meeting with Davos, I have underlined some of the strengths and weaknesses of Canada. Almost a year ago during your last Davos gathering I highlighted some of Canada's economic strengths and challenges. On the former, on the strengths, Canada's banks remain the soundest in the world. The World Economic Forum is one of several organizations that says so. On the fiscal side Canada's net debt to GDP ratio remains the lowest in the G7 and the lowest by far. Thus Canada's top credit rating has been affirmed, reaffirmed by all of the major rating agencies. Among G7 countries Canada has now the lowest overall tax rate on new business investment. Canada also possesses a diverse yet harmonious society with public institutions and a public service noted for professionalism and integrity. All of these assets, as Borgé mentioned, all of these assets and others have helped Canada better weather and better recover from the global recession. In fact, despite the uncertainty that has raised over 800,000 new net jobs, it has now added to the Canadian economy in July 2009. Indeed, despite the uncertainty of the times, the Canadian economy has now added more than 800,000 net new jobs since July 2009. Still, we remain acutely aware of the difficult global trends, especially for many developed countries. As I said to the World Economic Forum in January, many countries with which Canada is traditionally aligned continue to be weighed down by debts they cannot seem to control, by entitlements they can no longer afford, and by growth which threatens to remain sluggish for the foreseeable future. As I said in January, it's high time we realize that la richesse des économies occidentales n'est pas plus inévitable que la pauvreté des économies émergentes. The wealth of western economies is no more inevitable than the poverty of emerging ones. As these last four years have revealed, the wealth we enjoy today in the West is not inevitable. Our standard of living will be based on, and it will be based only on, strong growth-oriented policies and on getting the hard choices right. C'est pourquoi au cours de la dernière année, le gouvernement du Canada s'est engagé à prendre un série de mesures déterminées afin d'assurer la création d'emplois, la croissance économique et la prospérité à long term pour tous les Canadiens-Canadiens. That's why over the past year the Government of Canada has committed itself to a series of determined actions. We want to help ensure that growth, job creation and economic prosperity will be there for Canadians over the long term. Now broadly, for a sake of a shorthand, we categorize our various actions, our various set of actions which I'll review quickly, into what I call the five T's. The first of these is taxes. What I mean by that is keeping them down while ensuring strong government finances at the same time. We have continued to restrain and reform government expenditures to ensure that our budget will be balanced over the medium term and perhaps more importantly, we have taken actions to ensure that the federal fiscal position will be clearly sustainable over the next generation and beyond. The second T, the second T is training and by that I mean that we are reforming broadly our labour markets. We're investing in training and higher education at home. We're also making Canada's open and generous immigration system faster and more flexible in order to attract and to integrate those with the skills we need as quickly as possible. As well we have improved incentives in our Employment Insurance Program to better connect Canadians with available work. The third T refers to technology we are just beginning to comprehensively modernize our approach to research and innovation policy in order to get better commercial results for the significant government investments that we make in science and technological development. The fourth T refers to transformation and specifically to the transformation of bureaucratic processes. We're doing a number of things. For example, we've launched the Red Tape Reduction Initiative and the Responsible Resource Development Initiative. The goal of the ladder is to ensure that environmental reviews are comprehensive and that they are also completed in a reasonable timeframe according to the principle of one project, one review. The final T and the one that brings me again to this part of the world is of course trade and more broadly our global commerce strategy for trade and investment. Now since our government took office in 2006, we have successfully concluded foreign investment promotion and protection agreements with 14 countries. That of course includes China. We are negotiating with 12 more. Depuis 2006, le Canada a également conclu de nouveaux accords commerciaux avec 9 pays et a entrepris des négociations avec plus de 60 autres ill-compris avec l'Union Européenne. Il s'agit de la plus importante initiative commercial du Canada depuis la signature de l'Alena et ses négociations progressent rapidement. Since 2006, Canada has also concluded new trade agreements with 9 countries and we've launched negotiations with over 60 others. These include the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which we officially joined just one month ago. They also include our current talks with the European Union. This is Canada's most significant trade initiative since the signing of NAFTA and it is progressing very rapidly. All of which leads me to talk about India. During my 2009 visit and while Prime Minister Singh was with us in Canada the following year, I spoke about the need for Canada and India to become closer partners. And while I believe that this clearly is a mutual objective, je crois également que nous devons devenir des partenaires plus proches, plus rapidement. I also believe we need to become closer partners more quickly. When so much mutual interest, obvious synergy and cultural compatibility draws together. Greater momentum for a much closer and deeper partnership between Canada and India should be attainable. Prime Minister Singh and I have agreed on a goal of expanding bilateral trade to $15 billion by 2015. Le Canada a clairement démontré notre détermination en ce qui a traite cet objectif. Certainly Canada has demonstrated our commitment to this goal. Canada now has seven consulates throughout India. We've strengthened high level contact in addition to my trips. There have been no less than 22 visits from Canadian ministers since 2006. Our businesses are also increasingly engaged. Over 500 Canadian companies are here now and hundreds more are making plans. The Canada India CEO Forum has also now been established. And I would be remiss not to mention the remarkable partnership, the remarkable international partnership of Canada and India at the summits of the G20 since their inception. In fact, Canada and India have co-chaired and led consensus on two of the most important G20 working groups on international financial sector reform and on the framework for strong sustainable and balanced global growth. Ladies and gentlemen, through actions such as these, our priority on and our commitment to the G20 is to make sure that the G20 is the most important part of the G20. Ladies and gentlemen, through actions such as these, our priority on and our commitment to building bridges with India should be unmistakable. And it all rests on a solid foundation. We are inheritors of similar traditions and values. We are pluralistic society seeking strength from our diversity. We practice and esteem both the democracy and solidarity of our society and the rights and dignity of our country. Such bonds as these should allow not just for a profitable relationship but for a profound friendship. Certainly they have made it easier for India's sons and daughters to integrate into Canadian life. Just as Canada's efficient and predictable business climate has made it possible for so many of them to build businesses and achieve success in Canada. In doing so, they contribute, Indo-Canadians contribute tremendously to our country. More than a million Canadians of Indian origin now live in Canada. More than 3% of our population. More than a million Canadians of Indian origin now live in Canada. More than 3% of our entire population. They work hard, give back to their communities and make us proud. And you send us your young people in growing numbers. Last year, more than 23,000 Indian students studied or conducted research in Canada. That is a one-third increase in just one year, a two and a half, two and a half times more in just the past three years. I personally place great importance on these people-to-people links. They are and they will be a living bridge between our two great countries, a bridge of increasing span and growing importance. In fact, I'm delighted to point out that there are no less than eight members of the American Caucus in Canada, including two ministers, who trace their roots to India. But besides these impressive human relationships, we are, as I said three years ago, also obvious partners. This potential area is particularly evident in the areas that we have identified as being at the heart of the economic possibilities of Canada on end. The energy, the agriculture, the infrastructure and education. This potential partnership is particularly obvious in the areas that we have identified as core Canadian economic opportunities in India. Energy, agriculture, infrastructure and education. Canada, on the one hand, Canada is a natural resources powerhouse on the other. India needs resources to serve its growing industrial and technological strength. Canada has strong established public institutions. India's needs and areas like education and infrastructure are outstripping its capacity. Canada is an outward looking nation. India's reforms are increasingly opening its economy. Canada understands that traditional economic linkages will not be sufficient to preserve our prosperity in this uncertain global economy. And I think India likewise understands that while its aspirations are achievable, without the right policies and the right partners, a continuation of its high growth rates, its high rates of economic growth are simply not assured. As I've said before, the untapped economic potential between us is massive and undeniable. But massive and undeniable as that potential is, it will not develop itself. Des efforts concentrés sont en nécessaires de rapport de nos deux pays pour que nous puissions récolter tous les avantages que cette relation peut nous offrir. It will take concerted efforts by both of our countries to reap all of the benefits that this relationship can yield. I acknowledge, ladies and gentlemen, that there has been progress. The Social Security Agreement between us is finally done, so too at last is the administrative arrangement to complete our nuclear cooperation agreement. Our foreign investment negotiations have come much of the way. We have to get serious about getting them over the finish line. And negotiators will meet next week in Ottawa for the next round of discussions on a comprehensive economic partnership and trade agreement. To complete that would ensure the realization of our ambitious trade goals and more. But we still do have a long way to go. Friends, here is the bottom line. Le monde évolue rapidement. Le Canada et l'Inde doit faire de même. The world's economy, the world is moving quickly. Canada and India must do also. On our side, we've been deepening trade and investment ties with the largest, most dynamic markets in the world. With the United States, of course the European Union, Japan, China, we want India to be firmly on that list. But time and tide wait for no one. We must redouble our efforts. Let's not lose the chance for both of our countries that this moment offers. Now, ladies and gentlemen, let me just finish with this thought. You know, I believe there is kind of a parallel to Canada and India and the typical Bollywood plot. Two young people meet. They know they're meant for each other but they have obstacles to overcome. They do in fact overcome those obstacles and the happy ending ensures and they do so before the viewer loses interest. Ladies and gentlemen, it's a bit like how I see the relationship between Canada and India. We have had a very promising start. But we have to work hard to overcome the obstacles and we have to work quickly and in a determined matter if we are to get to the happy ending that we both want. It won't be easy but it can be done. So let's get it done. Let's get it done quickly and it will be worth it. Thank you again to the World Economic Forum for this invitation and ladies and gentlemen for your patience and attention. Thank you so much, Mr Prime Minister. It's always great to have you here with us. I didn't know that you had time to watch Bollywood movies. Oh, once in a while. I thought you were more or no watching the results coming in from the US. I'm doing some of that but I've got this speech to give. So we're seeing India again opening up for reforms and also undertaking new economic policies and the result is then also increased international business interest for India. Who would you say Canada strategically have its advantages when it comes to investing and collaborating with India and emerging economies? Well, I mentioned several of those things in our remarks. I think we have some unique advantages to a partnership between Canada and India. India needs as I said Canada needs obviously greater linkages to emerging markets. We have to find growth for our exports in order to create jobs at home. We need growth for our exports beyond our traditional markets. So India is an obviously an obvious choice. It's an expanding economy. It's also a society with which there's lots of compatibility. We're both democratic pluralistic societies with a commonwealth background. A whole set of legal and constitutional arrangements. We all understand federalism. We have unique people-to-people contacts given the million Indo-Canadians that I mentioned and their increasing prominence in all aspects of Canadian society. On the Indian and I was going to say the other part that particularly India needs is India obviously has particular needs in its growth and certain types of expertise and capital and in particular resources. One big advantage that Canada has as compared to many other developed countries besides the advanced sectors we have in education and science and manufacturing and other such things. We have a massive resource base and a massive energy base and we are unlike most developed countries net exporters of these products and India obviously has enormous needs in these areas. Agriculture is another one. I also think that India has found and will continue to find that in terms of just cultural and business face and political interface that it has no developed country that really better understands its nature. That is more accommodating of differences and dealing with those inevitable things when societies interact. So I think on both sides both we need emerging economies. India needs developed country partners and I think there is no better potential partnership than these two countries. Under your leadership have we seen more of a focus from Canada side to the west or to the east really. To Asia more of a focus on Asia in your policies and also on emerging economies and how will we see this moving forward in the next years. Well I would say that there's two things we've done. The first thing beyond even just an increasing emphasis to the Asia Pacific region. Under our government Canada really has reengaged in the whole business of international trade and investment agreements. You know I point out to people it's actually very surprising when we came to office in 2006 in spite of the fact that Canada has one of the most open trade dependent economies in the developed world. We had trade agreements with only five countries in the entire world. We had very few productive negotiations occurring at the time. So we have obviously made an effort to step all of this up as I mentioned. We've signed agreements now with nine new countries in various parts of the world and we have now some very big negotiations on the European Union where is our first target we still hope to be able to conclude this year. Prime Minister Insing and I reiterated our determination to get a deal between Canada and India over the next year. So those are two very big ones and of course we're in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiation. So we're back in the game of trade and investment agreements. We just signed a FIPA, Foreign Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement with China for example. But the other is of course we have been trying to take advantage of the growth of the Asia-Pacific region. We have made massive investments into West Coast infrastructure. Canadian ports geographically are actually much closer to Asia than their American counterparts so we're making investments there and of course we're continuing to step up our trade investment efforts and obviously trying to exploit the linkages, the business linkages of our diaspora communities which are very large. It's not just Indo-Canadian but for instance Chinese-Canadian is similar about a million people. I know there's been a change of policy. When I was trade minister in Norway we tried for five years to get the bilateral trade agreement on behalf of EFTA with Canada. I think there is movement. Maybe it's even signed. No, that was one of the deals we did get was the EFTA deal with the European Free Trade Association. As you know not a big market but a couple of very stable ones including Norway and Switzerland. We now have free trading agreements with those countries and that really also allowed us to get our foot in the door in terms of really kicking off the negotiations with the European Union. I used to say when I was trade minister that with Norway, Lichtenstein, Switzerland and Iceland is the only membership context where Norway was a superpower. Anyway, Mr Prime Minister looking at trade in general, we saw a big drop in the global trade after Lehman Brothers fell in the economic crisis. Then it came back again. It bunched back. But now we're seeing also more protectionist measures being taken. What we're seeing is that there are a lot of bilateral trade agreements happening on the multilateral scene with Doha. People say it's dead like a drum. So do you see going forward that and I know that in your speeches you saying that trade also spearheading jobs and growth. If you can share with us a little bit of your outlook on the global economic picture but also on the trade issue. Is all the multilateral can we forget that? Or is it just about protecting what we've got and then we will see more on the bilateral scene. Just maybe comment first of all on the world economic situation. If I were to go back and look ahead I would say that one of the things that most surprises me is that four years after the beginnings of this crisis we're still in it to some degree. The US has taken many aggressive and ambitious measures on its financial system but we're now facing the fiscal cliff situation in the American political system in the next couple of months. That's a big uncertainty and of course the big one on an ongoing basis remains the European debt problems and related problems and those things continue to haunt us. What troubles me about this is not that all of these problems can be fixed overnight but I do believe that what worries big actors in the global economy is that there will be some kind of catastrophic event as happened in late 08 that will send everything into a tailspin and the constant fear of that out of the United States or Europe or somewhere else is restraining. I think it continues to restrain the global recovery. I keep seeing out there there are all kinds of people, businesses who want to make things happen but they keep feeling that they've got to hold back because something strange and unexpected could happen. So that's my frustration that we can't get out of that overhang. On the other hand I will say this not with standing I think you're accurate in somewhat critical view of trade we have so far avoided a trade catastrophe you know my view of the 1930s is that there's many things that cause economic and financial crises but the thing that sustained it through the 1930s was the growth of protectionism and the increasing collapse of world trade. We have not seen that. For all of our failures in the past few years we have not seen that. Doha is not passing. In fact to be blunt with you our trade strategy in Canada not that we continue to try and push Doha forward but it's predicated on the view that Doha will not go forward and we have to sign bilateral and regional multilateral agreements and that's what we're doing and over time that can generate its own momentum. There is I would say at the G20 there is increasing slippage. There has been the promise stand still. It was pretty good for the first couple of years. There's starting to be greater protectionism going forward. It's not an avalanche yet. It's not something to panic about but I say this is the one thing that could keep us throw us into a prolonged recession for a long period of time. Most decision makers around the world understand that and will avoid it but will keep our fingers crossed. Look what I say is this what we're doing in Canada is the following. In fact I tell people we're following the advice I would tend to give to ordinary people and say what should I do with my money? What should I do with my money amid all this uncertainty and what we tell people is don't worry about today's uncertainty. Look at the opportunities over the medium term. That's really what we're doing in Canada through the 5T policies and other things I've talked about. You know we can sit up at night and we do occasionally worrying about the next phase of the European debt crisis but we really keep asking ourselves what do we need to do in Canada to promote economic growth jobs and economic opportunity for Canadians over the medium term over the next few years and on to the next generation. What can we do to make ourselves more competitive to exploit opportunities Doha may be stalled but what can we do to push trade forward? For instance in Canada we actually have eliminated all tariffs on manufacturing. We have made Canada among developed countries one of the first manufacturing tariff free zones in the world. So we're looking at ways we can just push the agenda forward, find willing partners and I do think that will carry us in the global economy through. I say well we can be disappointed that certain countries haven't acted aggressively enough or embracing little bits of protectionism here and there. I think the reality is most leaders get it on the big picture and I'm still optimistic we'll avoid catastrophes. So in the meantime we can just continue to plow forward one step at a time. Thank you so much and thank you Mr Prime Minister also for your leadership and Canada's leadership era. It was interesting to hear in your speech when you also emphasized that you have been reducing taxes but at the same time you've been balancing the budgets. We haven't quite got a balance yet but we're getting there. Okay thank you so much and also thank you for underlining so much the importance of trade and as Prime Minister was saying I think it's very important to underline that we're still not seeing the same kind of reduction in the global trade. In fact it has been holding up pretty good. In the thirties it fell with 50 percent so that's also another big difference. Again thank you again for the opportunity. Thank you Mr Prime Minister.