Narendra Modi declares this century belongs to Asians

Shanghai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that India and China together can give something to the world by working together, adding that he strongly believes that this century 'belongs' to the Asians.

"I am sure our interaction with business CEOs will be very beneficial. China and India are very old civilizations of world. I strongly believe that this century belongs to Asians . In recent times also the stream of knowledge has been flowing across our borders. Our ideas had a role to play in Chinese innovations, thus we have a lot in common and can do a lot together," said Prime Minister Modi, while speaking at the India-China Business forum in Shanghai.

The Prime Minister further called on China to help India grow economically.

"India has always been a knowledge society and you have been an innovating society. As we helped each other growing spiritually, we have to help each other growing economically. We are going to develop smart cities and mega industrial corridors; we have refined our FDI," he said.

"We are modernizing our Railways and planning metros in 50 cities. We are upgrading the existing airports, connecting them to regional places of economic importance. The scope and potential, the breadth and length of infrastructure and related developments is very huge in India," he added.

He further said that India has committed itself to creating a business environment and has therefore removed complicated procedures to encourage Foreign Direct Investment.

"We want to make things in India for which we launched 'Make in India'. We want to encourage research and development. We have committed ourselves to creating a business environment. Once you decide to be in India, we want to make you more and more comfortable," the Prime Minister said.

"We also want to promote manufacturing in a big way particularly to create jobs for our youth who form 65 percent of our population. FDI is important, but it won't come without a globally competitive business environment. We've removed complicated procedures," he added.

"Within a very short time, we introduced the GST Bill in our Parliament. An all time high allocation has been made for roads. Indo-Chinese partnership should and will flourish. I expect a very good outcome from this visit. India and Chinese has complimented each other in the past, it shall do so in the future too. Let us work together with mutual interest for development of our two great nations," he further said.

Earlier in the day, CEOs of a number of Chinese firms pledged their 'full support' to Prime Minister Modi's 'Make in India' initiative.

More than 20 agreements were signed between Indian and Chinese firms.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is currently in Shanghai, the final leg of his trip to China. In the evening, he is scheduled to depart for Ulan Bator.