[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 16315]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




WELCOMING THE VISIT OF PRIME MINISTER MANMOHAN SINGH AND HIS ADDRESS TO 
                     THE JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOSEPH CROWLEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 18, 2005

  Mr. CROWLEY. Mr. Speaker, I would like to welcome Indian Prime 
Minister Manmohan Singh, who will be addressing a joint session of 
Congress on July 19. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Singh at a 
dinner in April 2002 at the U.S. Embassy. He holds a doctorate in 
economics from Oxford University and has taught there as well as the 
Delhi School of Economics, India.
  In 1991, he was appointed finance minister under then Prime Minister 
Narasimha Rao. At that instance, India was on the brink of economic 
collapse with an unsustainable fiscal deficit of 8.5 percent. Singh 
piloted a series of economic reforms that quickly reduced this deficit 
by slashing red tape, cutting bureaucracy, and simplifying the tax 
system. He ushered in a new era of globalization in the country, 
crafting an environment more conducive to business investments, 
entrepreneurship, and international trade. In 2004, he was elected 
prime minister. Today, India's increasing global clout can be 
attributed in part to his economic prowess.
  Fashioning more substantial relations with India has consistently 
proved to be more important in recent years. India's burgeoning 
population and sizable middle class makes the Indian market 
particularly attractive to U.S. investments. With an average 8 percent 
growth rate and $13.1 billion dollars in exports to the U.S., trade 
with India will be increasingly significant in the global economy. 
President Bush remarked in 2004 that bilateral relations with India 
have never been so close. To highlight a few recent developments, the 
U.S. has increased defense cooperation, created an Open Skies air 
travel agreement which allows for more U.S. investment in Indian 
commercial air travel, and recently formed a Senate Indian Caucus by 
Senators Clinton and Cornyn.
  I have had the privilege of being the former co-chair of the House 
India Caucus and visiting India three times, where I led a delegation 
of 13 of my colleagues. In my district which consists of Queens and 
parts of the Bronx, we boast over 55,000 constituents of South Asian 
descent, the second largest of any community in the Nation. I represent 
74th Street in Queens, Little India as the signs on the street call it, 
and on behalf of Mr. Shiv Dass, Mr. Nitin Voora, Mr. Mohinder Verma, 
Mr. Subash Kapadia, Ms. Sandy Bhatia, Mr. Narula Gurdip Singh, Mr. 
Sohan Singh, and the rest of my Indian American constituents from 
Queens, NY I give the Prime Minister a wholehearted welcome and look 
forward to his remarks.

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