The visiting Indian Prime Minister and the Chinese Vice Premier attended the China-India Economic, Trade and Investment Summit in Beijing on Monday. Both sides agreed that the two countries should work together to improve trade and investment.

The visiting Indian Prime Minister and the Chinese Vice Premier attended the China-India Economic, Trade and Investment Summit in Beijing on Monday.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said economic cooperation is now a principal driving force in the strategic and cooperative partnership between India and China. The two countries need to work together to ensure they can both benefit from the economic resurgence and integration of Asia.

Chinese Vice Premier Hui liangyu said that the two countries, as good neighbors, should deepen their cooperation in all fields and make joint efforts -- particularly for better economic ties.

Chinese vice premier Hui Liangyu said, "I hope that entrepreneurs from both sides can further expand their fields of cooperation and diversify their co operations. There is much we can do. And we also need to strengthen mutually-beneficial collaborations in other countries. Peace and development are in both of our interests. "

Prime Minister Singh's high-level business delegation included 40 members.

Trade deficit with China is one of the major concerns of Indian businesses.

As two of the largest developing countries, China and India share many business challenges and opportunities. Although competing for global economic resources, they also seek win-win prospects for cooperation.

Ramesh Adige, Executive director of Corporate Affairs, Ranbaxy,said, "China grows 10 percent, India grows nearly 10 percent, there are many opportunities. But we have to make sure that the opportunities are fair."

But many believe that the gap can be bridged if both sides make the effort to diversify economic cooperations with China.

Hari Sankaran, managing director of IL & LTD., said, "There is trade imbalance, but there is huge potential for trade between the two countries, for example in services and manufacturing and also infrastructure."

Officials from China's Minsitry of Commerce said China will work on enlarging Indian imports and encouraging Chinese investments to India this year. China is now the second largest trade partner of India and is expected to soon become the largest.

As two of the largest developing countries, China and India share many business challenges and opportunities. Although competing for global economic resources, they also seek win-win prospects for cooperation. Experts say close economic ties will make the relationship between the two partners even more mutually-beneficial.

Editor: Zhang Ning

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government was strongly advised by a senior corporate executive here Saturday to learn from India to effectively develop outsourcing business.

"The government shall expand preferential tax policies on software firms to all outsourcing business so as to help develop an advantage based on low cost," said Zhang Chunjiang, a member of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), at a plenary meeting of its first annual full session.

In 2006 Indian firms took up 65 percent of the world's IT industry outsourcing market and 47 percent of office work outsourcing. The major reason was that Indian firms benefited greatly from governmental industrial strategy, especially free-of-tax policy, Zhang said.

Compared with foreign outsourcing companies including Indian ones, Chinese firms are lagged behind in service quality and the attraction of talented people, the political advisor said.

Training programs in line with international practice shall be introduced, Zhang said.

"The governments at various levels shall take the lead in outsourcing their services and encourage big domestic companies to do likewise," Zhang said, adding the country has unique advantages to boost outsourcing business.

China's high-quality and effective IT infrastructure network has laid a technical foundation for the business and the country has already attracted a number of multinationals, which could be potential clients, according to Zhang.

In the fast growing domestic IT service, technical personnel are trained and ready to join in the business, he said.

Editor: Xiong Qu

KOLKATA - There is a rising demand in India to learn the Chinese language, but New Delhi is hardly issuing visa to teachers from China, says Beijing’s top diplomat here.

‘There are no native Chinese teachers to teach the language to Indians since April 2008 despite the growing demand to learn the language,’ Consul General Mao Siwei said in an interview here.

‘The main problem is they don’t get Indian visa easily. They are not directly denied the visa but the procedure is delayed for so long that the teachers ultimately give up,’ Mao told IANS.

The diplomat said the increasing appeal for Chinese language followed rising trade between India and China in recent years.

‘There is a growing demand to learn Chinese among Indian businessmen because English is not our national language and not the medium for instruction too. Very few Chinese in China understand English.’

Asked why he thought India needed Chinese language teachers from China, he said the language was ‘different’ from all others.

‘Chinese is a totally different language and a bit difficult too. Unlike other languages that have several thousand syllables, Chinese has only a few hundred. Hence a lot of them have the same pronunciation. There are same words with different meanings and the difference in meaning is based on tunes.

‘For example, the word ‘ma’ pronounced in four different ways has four meanings - mother, jute plant, horse and quarrel,’ Mao said.

Mao said that Indian teachers of Chinese language cannot give the ‘correct pronunciation that is required for beginners to learn the language as well as be understood by Chinese people’.

According to him, under an agreement by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Chinese education ministry, every two years two teachers from China should be sent to India at one or more universities and two teachers from India will go to China to teach Hindi at Beijing University.

‘There was a Chinese teacher at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi a long time back. After his two-year term got over, we have not been able to send anyone to take his place. The same goes for two teachers at Santiniketan University in West Bengal and Delhi University,’ he said.

The consul general said the main problem lay in getting an Indian working visa.

‘I don’t know, but for some unknown reasons, Chinese teachers are not being given Indian visa easily. Even teachers at Santiniketan and Delhi universities got their visa with much difficulty.

‘After the teacher from Santiniketan returned to China, the Chinese education authorities assigned a teacher to take his position. The lady waited for several months for the visa. Ultimately, she went to some other country.’

There is a cell under the Chinese education ministry to promote the language abroad.

Mao said a working visa does take some time to get cleared, but ‘the procedure can’t be delayed forever like this’. He added there was nothing the Chinese authorities can do about it.

‘It is the sovereign right of the Indian government to issue or reject visa. So we cannot say much about it apart from requesting the authorities to issue visa to our teachers in a quicker way so that we can help Indians who are willing to learn Chinese.

‘It will be best if the (Indian) government can chalk out a special policy for Chinese teachers.’

Mao added that Sino-Indian relations were on the upswing.

‘Now that political relations between India and China are quite good, we should work at increasing cultural exchange too. Unless we know each other’s culture, it’s difficult to understand each other’s hearts.’

It is only because of India that China is a Buddhist country, he said.

‘Issues like visa hazards hold us back. The (new Indian) policy must be more flexible to increase cultural exchanges.’

NEWS - METROS
The School, celebrates first anniversary
07.29.2009 (GMT+5.5)

Kolkata : The School of Chinese Language celebrated its first anniversary with the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China, Mao Siwei here on July 16. Students joined hands to usher in the 2nd year with much joy and fanfare.

The Founder of The School, Madan Saraff, welcomed all the Teachers, Students and Siwei as well as members of the Consulate General to The School.

This was followed by 'Xiao Hong Mao', which was ably presented by the Students of Intensive (Qianghua Kecheng) Classes with great earnestness, enthusiasm and finesse. Xiao Hong Mao is a short play based on the evergreen fable of Little Red Riding Hood. The entire dialogue was composed in Chinese and executed in authentic fashion with correct phonetics. The acting of each amateur actor was superb and much enjoyed by everyone.

Shilpa Baheti was a very sweet Xiao Hong Mao in her red frock and pigtails. Her mother was played by Sayanti Sengupta. The Big Bad Wolf played by Charisma Saraff was quite menacing and comic at the same time. Pinaki Talukdar played a double role (Bollywood style) as Grandma and the Old Man. Ultimately, the Rajorshi De, the Hunter, managed to kill the Wolf.

The skit was followed by a Chinese calligraphy presentation by Parag Boghani, a Student, who demonstrated great promise and patience in writing out Chinese characters with aplomb.

After the group song in Chinese, Siwei said: 'In India, there are quite a lot of schools teaching Chinese language – in the public sector we have some very good government schools such as the School of Languages at JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University), Cheena Bhavan at Santiniketan; these provide good Chinese language programmes in India. But, as far as private schools are concerned, may I say that this school (The School of Chinese Language) might be the best in India.'

Referring to the desire in Indians to learn Chinese language, he mentioned how the people of China and India, are now reaching out to each other and touching each other's hearts through the power of language. Siwei, much to the delight (and surprise) of everyone, sang the entirelyrics of Kuch Na Kaho from the blockbuster Hindi movie '1942 A Love Story' demonstrating his ability and sincere affection for India and its culture.

Awards were distributed to the Intensive Class students with Rajorshi De and Charisma Saraff bagging the first prize for their respective performances in Year One in their classes.

The evening ended with some great food, Indian and Chinese, served buffet style and animated conversation.

Why did Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, then Vice Chancellor of Calcutta University, find it important to appoint the scholar, Sylvain Levy, to start Chinese Language classes as early as in 1921?

Why did Guru Rabindranath Tagore feel it necessary to formally start Chinese Language teaching at Viswa-Bharati University in Santiniketan? (Cheena Bhavan was formally established in 1937 with help of the great Chinese scholar,  Tan Yunshan.)

Foundation of friendship laid nearly two thousand years ago: As Tagore said “…foundations were laid eighteen hundred years back by our ancestors with infinite patience and sacrifice…”. In fact, some words in Sanskrit have come from China!

WHY CHINESE (MANDARIN)!

• To be the ambassadors of our country in all Chinese-speaking nations.
• Learning Chinese is an extraordinarily agreeable experience through which one can immerse oneself in a different culture. Unlike most languages, Chinese has a unique ideographic writing system, which provides visual comprehensibility. The grammatical structure of Chinese is not only logical, but also pragmatic, related to the particular way of Chinese thinking. Knowledge of the written language opens up the culture of one of the world's oldest civilizations.
• Traditional Chinese culture, from Confucianism and Chan Buddhism to martial arts and Chinese cuisine, has an enormous influence on East and Southeast Asian nations. It is worthwhile studying this intimately through the language. Chinese culture has also greatly inspired the western world through Marco Polo and others. Mao, contemporary of Mahatma Gandhi carried a profound influence on world politics.
• Because Language is the river which can connect peoples; knowledge of language helps break barriers
• Chinese literature has been grossly neglected by us, in its original language. Learning Mandarin would allow us to enjoy the pleasures of the same without any dilution
• Interaction with Chinese-speaking persons becomes smoother and happy, whether in cultural, social or business situations
• An immediate bonding is created with the Chinese counterpart (just as an immediate bonding would be created when a Chinese person speaks Bengali or Hindi).
• The Chinese people, more than westerners, appreciate a foreigner knowing their language
• Spoken by the largest number of human population- Speakers of Chinese not only live in China, Taiwan, and Singapore, but are also spread throughout Southeast Asia, North America, South America and Europe, where large Chinese communities congregate; now, even in Africa and ofcourse Australia. Chinese people today have been playing increasingly important roles worldwide.
• Helps to bridge differences which exist between the two great civilizations and countries (India and China)
• To add a micro-drop of understanding to the ocean of un-understanding between the two countries by providing and creating a better and correct perception of each other and each others’ culture
• Language would be a platform for the launch into the exciting future which is clearly before us; a century which clearly belongs to India and China.
• To become Interpreters or Translators, ever-increasing demand exists
• To take advantage of the massive shortage in India of Chinese-speaking persons
• Trade and interactive relations between the two countries are slated to rise many fold, creating an urgent requirement of Chinese-speaking persons
• People's Republic of China currently boasts the fastest growing economy in the world and is widely regarded as potentially the biggest global market in the twenty-first century. Proficient speakers of Mandarin Chinese will find jobs in various fields such as business, government, international relations, information technology, tourism, education, translation and much, much more. Of all foreign languages, Chinese is of greatest current interest.
• To work gainfully in the newly established offices and factories of Chinese companies
• The scope and opportunities for students who learn Chinese as a foreign language: Large incomes are being earned by those already fluent in Chinese (Mandarin). An Interpreter already commands up to Rs. 5000 per day in today’s fast-paced world. Specialized interpretation provides even richer benefits.
• To take advantage of the massive and rising shortage in India, of Chinese-speaking persons. Demand for Chinese speaking workers and managers is ever-increasing
• Tourism, whether be hotels, places of interest, travel companies, need guides and Chinese-speaking persons for customer-care jobs
• Airline industry with increasing traffic between India and China needs bi-lingual on-board staff
• Students who wish to study in China have an advantage over others; opportunity to avail of high-quality yet affordable college/university education in China.
• Chinese companies are increasingly having a presence in India and need local managers/workers; vice versa, Indian companies are doing the same in China
• Huge unsatiated demand in IT & BPO industry
• Value-adds to CVs
• Etc etc
  A complete mastery of Chinese is certainly not an easy task for anyone; even the Chinese. A very well-educated Chinese has a vocabulary of about 6000 to 7000 characters (out of about 10,000* currently used characters, left after nearly 20-30000 characters have gradually fallen into disuse). A literate worker possesses the knowledge of about 1500-2000 characters. A knowledge of about 3000 characters is necessary to read a Mandarin newspaper. A proficient foreign student with a career in mind should understand anywhere between 1500 to 6000 characters. This study requires about 3 years – 3 years of dedication, application and passion.
  (*Note: It is important to know that although characters used may be only about 10000, Chinese words which are usually made up of more than 1 character, are many fold more than the number of characters.)