Joanna Kempkers: ‘Next 10 years will be about India’s rise’
28 May 2018
India is the the world’s largest democracy, the fastest-growing economy in the world, and it’s going to be the world’s most populous country by 2025, says Joanna Kempkers, New Zealand High Commissioner to India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh; and Ambassador to Nepal.
India: A brief introduction
Joanna Kempkers: “With one-fifth of humanity living in the region, it’s not surprising that it’s growing in importance. India itself is growing at a really rapid pace.
And if you think about the about the last 10 to 20 years being about China’s rise, the next 10 to 20 are going to be about India’s rise.
It’s the world’s largest democracy, it’s the fastest-growing economy in the world, it’s going to be the most populous country in the world by 2025, overtaking China.
India’s also increasingly asserting its place in the world, seeking membership of the UN Security Council, APEC, the nuclear suppliers group – a lot of multilateral fora.
Geo-strategically, the region is also growing in economic importance; and you’ll see that just as China has increased its presence in Southeast Asia, so too has China increased its presence in South Asia and in the Indian Ocean.
For New Zealand, that Indian Ocean region is increasingly becoming connected with our own Asia-Pacific region and the concept of the Indo-Pacific has been outlined.
Japan has outlined a strategy for a free and open Indo-Pacific, and the US has also indicated the importance of the region.
India itself has said that it is supportive of the principles of having its region free, and open and, transparent and having principles of good governance.
That might all seem a bit far off for New Zealanders, but just to know that it’s a region that is growing hugely, at a fast pace and that it’s important economically and geo-strategically.
It’s time that New Zealand paid attention to the region, if we are going to take advantage of the opportunities there are for us in region.”
– Asia Media Centre
