Festival of
Thinkers is a lecture series organised by Symbiosis International University.
Students of SIIB got the opportunity to attend one such lecture by the honourable
Swiss ambassador to India – Dr. Linus Von Castelmur. The theme for the lecture
was ‘Globalisation’. The other dignitaries present in the session were Dr.S.B.
Majumdar, Dr.Vidya Yeravdekar, Dr.Rajani Gupte, Dr.Prakash Shah and few Swiss
delegates.
Dr.Castelmur harped upon the
importance of globalisation and centred its importance around five points:
- Access to mass production of goods
- Centralized services
- Mobile labour force
- More fragmented product chains
- Decreasing linkage of companies to domestic country
He focussed
on the fact that globalisation produces winners as well as losers. He cited the
example where FDI into a country affects the domestic industry. Thus the need
for effective and efficient formulation, implementation and governance of
public policy. Speaking on Switzerland, he expressed his apprehension about the
decreasing birth rate in Switzerland and the aging population. The aging
population in Switzerland is making it extremely difficult for the government
to finance pension and allocate funds for development and growth. He added that
the technological development have led to decrease in employment rate. He also
enlightened us about the public & private debt issues faced by the Swiss.
But in this era of
globalisation, Switzerland remains an attractive investment destination thanks to
the open economic policies adopted by the government. The country have had
current account surplus for the last 30 years. The small and medium scale
industries are driven by innovation. He summed up that the positive effects of
globalization on any country can be achieved by few steps such as below which
are already in place in Switzerland:
- Liberal labour market and a flexible economy
- Vocational training model
- Research and minimum bureaucracy
- Immigration of professionals fitting the needs across the various sectors of the industry
- High standard of living and excellent infrastructure
According
to the Swiss ambassador, it is equally important to preserve the regional
culture and customs during these times of globalization.
Article contributed by Santanu Das. Santanu is a International Business student , SIIB Pune
( Batch of 2012-14). Management consulting interests him and when not in class you would find him quizzing, debating and going aorund doing PR activities. He can be reached at santanudas@siib.ac.in
No comments:
Post a Comment