Listening in to what China has to say: Asian Bank, MSR, strategy and blue skies
India and China are walking together in a spirit of ‘competitive cooperation’ that can bring about prosperity not only to Asia, but can give a sense of hope to most of the developing and under-developed world.
Recently, when a delegation of Indian journalists was landing in Beijing, Premier Li Keqiang had left for Brussels to push the idea of setting up of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in which India will be the second largest shareholder after China.
It is evident that China is opening up, as our delegation was given a rare opportunity to visit the Academy of Armored Force Engineering Institute of PLA to interact with Deputy Commandant Sr. Col. Mr. Liu Degang and get a closer look at the Chinese main battle tanks and other army vehicles.
A visit to China’s show case city ‘Pudong ‘, a walk on the famous Nanjing Gu avenue in Shanghai, glimpses of ever glittering skyscrapers on the banks of river Hangpu and a travel by bullet train running at the speed of 304 km per hour from Shanghai to Beijing, were proof enough of China’s robust achievements that India has much to learn from. The bullet train covered a distance of 1207 km in exactly 5 hours and 5 minutes. According to the latest reports in Fortune magazine, ”China has built 6900 miles of tracks for bullet trains. The ridership has gone up from 237,000 (2007) to 2.5 million last year. China is investing more than $128 billion dollars in domestic railway construction in 2015. Food for thought indeed for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu!