Queen Beatrix

The Hague, Oct. 22: A banner ad spotted in a village, miles away from the capital of the Netherlands, claimed that wind energy was growing at a faster pace in the country than the Chinese and Indian economies.

Mercifully, the names of the countries were spelt separately and not with the predictable hyphen. But manifest in the analogy was the top-of-the-mind space that “Chindia”— the famous tandem coinage of junior commerce minister Jairam Ramesh, according to Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf — occupied in the Dutch scheme of things, notably in trade and commerce.

As Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands begins a state visit to India from October 24 with her son, the Prince of Orange, and his spouse, Princess Maxima, it was officially stated that while her itinerary would focus on three main sectors — ecology, water and micro-finance—economic developments in India and the possibilities for the Netherlands’ businesses will be a key aspect of the talks.

The heads of the country’s top eight companies will be part of the queen’s delegation. In roundtable conferences with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his colleagues, they are expected to unveil plans for India and pitch the Netherlands as the “gateway to Europe and a market of 450 million persons” (the size of the integrated European market).

Stress will be laid on the country’s infrastructure — Rotterdam is the world’s second-largest port, Schiphol, Europe’s fourth-largest airport, Amsterdam is the world’s number one Internet hub — and other positives.

These include the fact that the Netherlands is the world’s sixth-largest goods exporter and the fifth-largest in terms of outward and inward foreign direct investment. Other features to be highlighted will be its multilingual workforce and a stable economy.

The queen’s visit will be followed by a delegation of 120 state officials and business leaders in November, to be led by the foreign trade minister.

Juliana van Stolbenglaan of the EVD, the state agency for international business and cooperation, dubbed this the “largest-ever bilateral economic mission” to fly out of the country.

Underlying the rediscovery of India as the sone ki chidiyaa (the golden bird) of yore were disconcerting self-perceptions of the European economy. These include worries about how its growth projections were limited by an ageing workforce and how the Netherlands’ 2.5 per cent growth trailed the double-digit rates of India and China.

There was a realisation that while India was exploited on the West’s terms in the East India era, the ground rules now had created a level-playing field to negotiate and force a tougher quid pro quo.

An ABN AMRO report, titled “Chindia: A tale of two giants”, prepared in May this year, warned that while the European Union will experience higher growth in the near future, perceptions look gloomy in the longer term because of its ageing population. “The EU should embrace the emergence of China and India to remain globally competitive and deal with the economic challenges ahead.”

The visit of Dutch minister Brinkhorst with a team of 55 companies in October 2005 was the first big impulse for a serious look at India as a “major emerging economy”.

The Dutch Trade Board, which was set up that year as a public-private partnership in international enterprise, prepared an “action plan” which remains a blueprint of sorts for investors and India trade watchers.

After sounding effusive about India being the world’s fifth-largest purchaser and boasting an “exceptionally” high growth rate, the report ran its reality checks.

Among them were India’s rising unemployment (it contested the official figure of 9.1 per cent for 2004), the poor state of government finances, tardy implementation of FDI laws, trade and non-tariff barriers and a weak infrastructure.