Obama's focus is a job factory for Americans-Nov 5, 2010,

Obama's focus is a job factory for Americans

ET Bureau, Nov 5, 2010, 09.51am IST

(I WISH IT SHOULD BE TWO WAY AFFAIR,AS EVEN INDIA NEED JOBS,EMPLOYMENTS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH,THOUGH TO WORK IN OTHER COUNTRY,SPECIALLY IN IT SECTOR ONLY SKILLED AND HIGHLY EDUCATED PROFESSIONALS CAN GET CHANCE,WHERE AS IF THEY COME TO OUR COUNTRY,AS MR OBAMA WANTS OUR MARKET TO OPEN UP FOR THEM,UNSKILLED OR VOCATIONAL TRAINED PROFESSIONALS AND SMALL SCALE ENTERPRENEURS, WHO ARE BUSY MANUFACTURING HARDWARES ETC,OR MAYBE BY ASSEMBLING IT,WILL MAY GET EFFECTED.ONE NEED TO CONSIDER THIS POINT AS WELL OR FIND SOME ALTERNATIVES FOR IT!!!. ...VIBHA)

NEW DELHI: As political lines harden in the US after the commanding loss of public approval for the Democratic Party over its failure to jump start an economic recovery, US President Barack Obama has said that he would concentrate on creation of job opportunities for his countrymen during his trip to India.

"As I plan for my trip later this week to Asia, the whole focus is on how are we going to open up markets so that American businesses can prosper, and we can sell more goods and create more jobs here in the United States," the president told a crowded press conference in Washington, a day after his Democratic Party lost majority in the US House of Representatives.

"And a whole bunch of corporate executives are going to be joining us so that I can help them open up those markets and allow them to sell their products," President Obama said.

Mr Obama's stand indicated that the president would not open up jobs, but would expect India to make some forward movement on the proposed $12-billion military and civilian purchases. The purchases are expected to create or save about 50,000 to 60,000 jobs in the US.

Indian side, which has indicated that the deal is far from being wrapped, countered the US stand on jobs saying that it has created over 1.5 lakh jobs for Americans in India over the last five years. "This is besides the jobs created by Indian multinationals in the US," a senior official said.

All these are prompting India to lower the expectation limit. On her part, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao said the visit was primarily aimed at consolidating the relationship between the two countries.

"The US administration under president Obama has expressed its commitment to strengthen Indo-US bilateral relations further, building upon the existing level of cooperation in various areas of bilateral and global engagement," she said.

Ms Rao said there had been good "progress" on elimination of obstacles created by dual-use controls of the US as governments of both countries were of the view that the issue needed to be reviewed in order to reduce and "ultimately eliminate" it.

She also disclosed that India has invited US companies to explain to them the provisions of its domestic civil nuclear liability law and address their concerns, if any, and also begin discussions on the next steps of implementation of civil nuclear power projects. "A commercial delegation from the US is likely to visit India very shortly in this connection," Ms Rao said.

India and the US are likely to sign MoUs to deepen cooperation in the field of health, education, agriculture and clean energy. While a pact on weather and corp forecasting was expected in the agriculture area, establishment of a disease detection centre on the lines of American Centre for Disease Control with the US help was also likely to be inked, Ms Rao said.


Read more: Obama's focus is a job factory for Americans - The Times of India