Information and Public Relations Department

Her Excellency Ms. Hillary Rodham Clinton, US Secretary of State

called on

the Honble Chief Minister

of Tamil Nadu

PR NO : 470 20.07.2011 PRESS RELEASE

Her Excellency Ms. Hillary Rodham Clinton, US Secretary of State met Selvi J Jayalalithaa, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu today (20.7.2011) at the Secretariat, Fort St. George, Chennai, and discussed various social, political and economic issues of common interest.

At the outset, the US Secretary of Stat

Thursday, 21 July 2011, 12:10

Press Release

Government of Tamil Nadu

e Ms. Hillary Clinton congratulated the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on her impressive electoral victory which would be the envy of any politician in the world. She also congratulated her on the many path-breaking achievements during her earlier stints as Chief Minister. She said that Selvi J Jayalalithaa’s achievements were great success stories and she was eager to interact with such a great personality.

During this interaction, the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu recalled the strong bilateral trade relationship between India and the United States and stated that US is India’s third largest trading partner, the second most important export market, and the third most important source of imports. India exported 30 billion US $ worth of services to the US in 2009-2010. India imported 10 billion US $ worth of US services in 2009. Selvi J Jayalalithaa foresaw that Indian imports of US services would see a sharp increase in coming years as India’s middle class market would grow larger.

Inviting more US investment in the Automobile Sector in Tamil Nadu, the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu stated that Tamil Nadu enjoys pre-eminence in automotive / auto components. She said that Tamil Nadu is aspiring to become a global hub in these industries and the opportunities are enormous for the Tamil Nadu and the US Governments to work together and formulate a policy to engage CEOs from mid-size companies in each country, to work towards facilitating an enabling environment for small and medium enterprises, leveraging technology, and sourcing, and strengthening the global supply chain management system in the Automotive Sector. The US Secretary of State expressed the view that there was great potential for American investments in Tamil Nadu.

Touching upon the Solar Energy Sector, the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Selvi J Jayalalithaa said that Solar energy and related technology is also a sector in which Tamil Nadu can provide vast opportunities on a long term basis. She stated that the Government of Tamil Nadu has proposed to establish 10 Solar Energy Parks of 300 MW each and this would require an investment of 9 billion US $. The Government of Tamil Nadu and the US Government could work together to facilitate investment from US Companies in Tamil Nadu in this Sector.

Regarding Skill Development Initiatives, the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu stated that Human Capital has always been a great asset of Tamil Nadu and Education has a crucial role to play in its development. She stated that the employment potential of the State is 10-12 Million jobs between 2011 and 2020. The number of institutions for higher education and vocational training should increase by 4 times each to ensure this. Development of Vocational Training Institutes and upgradation of existing Industrial Training Institutes are possible if both the Government of Tamil Nadu and the US Government can join hands in promoting skill development. The US Secretary of State evinced keen interest in collaborative exchange programmes between training institutions in Tamil Nadu and the United States. The US Secretary of State expressed her desire that American students should come for internship with the American Companies and NGOs in Tamil Nadu.

As far as Road Infrastructure Connectivity is concerned, the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu pointed out that roadways are the single most important component which account for over 60% of Cargo movement in Tamil Nadu. In Tamil Nadu, roadways are a major concern for industry. She said that it is projected that the capacity required is 2.1 lakh Kms. with a spending of 15-20 billion US $ by 2020. Selvi J Jayalalithaa pointed out that of particular importance is the development of road infrastructure at locations of economic activity and in particular, ports and industrial clusters have high need for road infrastructure. The Government of Tamil Nadu has been aggressively promoting industrial clusters throughout the State, especially in the interior and southern districts. In this development of road infrastructure there is great opportunity for collaboration between US Government and the Government of Tamil Nadu. The US Secretary of State informed the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister that Overseas Private Investment Corporation in the US has many opportunities for investments in Tamil Nadu and the US would look forward to many large investments in the State of Tamil Nadu under the dynamic leadership of Selvi J Jayalalithaa, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.

During the course of the discussions, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Selvi J Jayalalithaa expressed her concern over reduction in issuance of H1B visas even though in terms of number of Visas issued, the Chennai US Consulate is the second largest in the world. Since the current quota for H1B is very low at 65,000 and since the number of applications far exceeds this quota, there is a very high rejection rate and requested the US Secretary of State to increase the quota of H1B Visas to the original levels of 195,000.

During the discussion on the issues concerning Sri Lankan Tamils, the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Selvi J Jayalalithaa stated that even though the war in Sri Lanka was over two years ago, the Sri Lankan Tamils in the Jaffna area are still in camps and unable to go back to the original places where they used to live. The US Secretary of State Ms. Hillary Rodham Clinton shared the concern of the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and said that the U.S. Government is looking at some innovative and creative ideas in breaking this impasse and enabling the Sri Lankan Tamils in camps to get back to their own homes. While discussing the Sri Lankan refugees in Tamil Nadu, the Hon’ble Chief Minister explained that they have been provided with all the facilities that are available to the local citizens by the Government of Tamil Nadu.

The US Secretary of State and her delegation expressed a keen desire to know about the pioneering schemes of Selvi J Jayalalithaa for women and children like the Cradle Baby Scheme, Girl Child Protection Scheme, All Women Police Stations, Women Self-Help Groups, initiated by Selvi J Jayalalithaa, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. The delegation also deeply appreciated the Free Mid-day Nutritious Meal Scheme pioneered by Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R. The US Secretary of State requested that the details of all these schemes may be sent to the US Consul General at Chennai for use in various fora. The US Secretary of State also expressed her desire for a State to State programme between Tamil Nadu and the States in US for various industrial and economic programmes.

The meeting between Selvi J Jayalalithaa, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and Her Excellency Ms. Hillary Rodham Clinton, US Secretary of State, was marked by cordiality, genuine goodwill and great warmth and mutual respect. The US Secretary of State expressed the hope that there would be many more opportunities for such interactions in the future. She invited the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Selvi J Jayalalithaa to visit the US which would enable the Americans to know about the great achievements of the State of Tamil Nadu.The meeting lasted for an hour.

The US Delegation comprised Mr. Bob Blake, Assistant Secretary of State, Ms. Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, Mr. Peter Burleigh, US Ambassador to India, Mr. Andrew T. Simkin, US Consul General at Chennai and Ms. Huma Abidin, Deputy Chief of Staff in the Office of the Secretary of State, United States of America.

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Issued by: Director, Information-Public Relations, Chennai-9

Date : 20.7.2011

http://www.tn.gov.in/seithi_veliyeedu/pressphoto.php?id=2161

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US Deapartment of State

Special Briefing

Chennai, India

July 20, 2011

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL ONE: All right. Well, I thought I would just give you a brief rundown of why we’re going to Chennai, some of the events there, and maybe a little bit about the speech. I think you’ve already heard already a little bit about the speech.

First of all, Chennai and Tamil Nadu are some of the most dynamic parts of India. Chennai itself is the fourth largest city and Tamil Nadu is the, I think, fourth largest economy in India. As you know, it’s predominantly Tamil, 70 million Tamils. It’s known around India as one of the states with the highest rates of education and health, and I think that’s one of the real drivers of the growth that we’ve seen.

As all of you know, the growth story in India, for a lot of the early part of the last 10 years, was on the basis of services experts, particularly IT experts, and certainly Tamil Nadu was part of that. But since then, it’s interesting that Tamil Nadu has also become a leader in the manufacturing area as well. So we have a lot of big American companies down there. Ford has a big plant near Chennai; John Deere has a new joint venture; Caterpillar has a big set-up down there as well. So American companies are very much part of that economic dynamism down there. We’re really happy about that.

The other piece of that is the skilled workers. You all may have heard in the sort of run-up to this visit, India has been a major beneficiary of the so-called H1B visas, which are the skilled worker visas. Last year, India received 65 percent of those visas worldwide, and a very large percentage of those visas were issued at our consulate in Chennai, again, I think, underlining the dynamism of the local economy and how well things are going, particularly at the high-tech sector.

In terms of some of the events that we’re going to be doing there, she’s going to be giving a speech at this place called the Anna Centenary Library. It’s just been finished in 2010. It’s a gleaming, new, beautiful building.

QUESTION: Does that mean it’s air conditioned?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL ONE: Yes. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: It has wi-fi and (inaudible).

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL ONE: It’s one of the largest libraries now in Asia. I think you’ll see it’s a pretty impressive place. We also want to be giving a speech down here, because Chennai has really been kind of a bridge to all of Southeast Asia. A lot of the Tamil traders many hundreds of years ago went as far down as Indonesia and Malaysia, and you could still see when you go to places like Bali, when you guys go there, you’ll see a lot of Hindu temples, and so those are the legacy of these Tamil traders. So again, it’s always had this seafaring tradition, and I think that’s one of the themes that the Secretary will be echoing in her speech.

The Secretary will be meeting with the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, who is Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. I’ll give you the spelling of that later. She’s just been reelected now. She’s been in office now three times. She was – she defeated the previous incumbent, Muthuvel Karunanidhi, in the most recent elections just this year. So she’s back for her third term. She’s quite an interesting, dynamic woman. She’s the – she’s a former Tamil film star. She, many times, has had her own TV channel called Jaya TV. So she’s very popular and very well known in Tamil Nadu. She is one of now four women chief ministers in India. The others are the chief minister in Andhra Pradesh, the chief minister of Delhi, and then who’s the other one – oh, the chief – the newly elected chief minister in West Bengal. So collectively now, women chief ministers run states that have 30 percent of the population of India, so I think – I’m sure the Secretary will be talking, I’m sure, about that.

We do – we have a lot of interesting and good programs in Chennai. They’ve always been a leader in the international AIDS arena, where again, they got a jump on the rest of India starting to work on HIV/AIDS back in the early 1990s. So they were able to bring down the HIV infection rates much more quickly than some of the other parts of India. We’ve also been working very collaboratively with them on trafficking in persons, which, as you know, has been a bit of an issue in India. And this year, for the first time, India, as you’ll recall, was brought down to Tier 2 – Tier 2 Watch List – reflecting a lot of the progress. And some of that progress was achieved here at Chennai, where they’ve set up anti-trafficking units at the state level, and again have taken quite a forward leadership role. So that might come up in the meeting.

And then the other issue is probably going to be about Sri Lanka, to say the 70 million Tamils in Tamil Nadu are all very concerned about the situation in Sri Lanka. There’s 70,000 Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka that are still in Tamil Nadu. The state and the central government are very happy to be supporting that. There’s no pressure to leave or anything like that. I think some of them have started to slowly trickle back to Sri Lanka, now that the situation is slowly improving. One of the concerns here in Tamil Nadu is always about the IDPs. As you recall, there were almost 300,000 IDPs at the very end of the war. Almost all of those have now been resettled in the north. There’s about 10,000 or so that still need to be resettled, but generally, I think the government’s record on that has been good.

Where we and the Indians are pushing for progress is on this whole process of reconciliation, where – which is – includes a wide variety of different issues. They need to organize provincial council elections up in the north so that there will be, for the first time, an indigenous leadership in that area that was ruled by the LTTE for 30 years. They need to complete the resettlement process. They need to set up a process of providing for plant dispute resolution, because again, many people have claims to various parts of those plants. They need to stop the activities of paramilitaries that continue to operate in that part of the country.

QUESTION: Who is she going to be talking about this with?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL ONE: Sorry?

QUESTION: Who is she going to be talking about this with?

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL ONE: Well, I don’t – I’m just giving you a little bit of background on the general sort of situation (inaudible) Sri Lankans – sorry, the Tamils – and also in Indian (inaudible). (Excerpt)

http://www.state.gov/p/sca/rls/rmks/2011/168868.htm

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Remarks on The Working Women’s Forum

Remarks

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Chennai, India

July 20, 2011

I want to thank my friend and your friend, a wonderful woman who is viewed as a leader around the world, Jaya. (Applause.)

I want you to know that I have admired the work of the Working Women’s Forum for many years. (Applause.) In 1978, there were only 800 women members. Today, there are more than 1 million of you. (Applause.) I am honored to be here with you to celebrate your accomplishments in bringing micro-credit to women, in bringing healthcare and other services to women so they could have a better life for themselves and their children. (Applause.)

I believe in the self-help movement that all of you are a part of, because I have seen the results with my own eyes. From Bangladesh to India to South Africa to Chile and Nicaragua and Latin America, I have seen women’s lives change, as we heard from the wonderful story earlier. Every one of you has a story, and I applaud you for what you have done to help yourselves. (Applause.)

So today, I wanted to bring you some more help, to help more women. (Applause.) I’m very pleased to announce that Goldman Sachs, a very important global financial company, has decided to support a training program through the Indian School of Business to help self-help groups bring even more knowledge and skills about how to take your businesses from the very local village level to the cities, to the countries, to the world. (Applause.)

I also know there are several panchayat members here, and I thank you for working so hard to promote government and democracy at the local level. (Applause.) So I am pleased to announce that the Government of the United States and the Government of India will establish a regional training program at the Asia University of Women to spotlight the success of the panchayat program, and train more women to be local leaders like you.

We also want to continue working with the Working Women’s Forum on the very serious problem we just heard about, violence against women. (Applause.)

And we want to work with you on another problem, and that is the smoke that you breathe when you are cooking for your families. I looked at an exhibition of cooking stoves outside with Dr. Kalpana Balakrishnan of Sri Ramachandra University. Is she here? Is that – yes. Doctor? She is one of the world’s experts on how to make cooking safer for women and children. (Applause.) Because of the health problems caused by breathing smoke, we have worked with many partners around the world to create the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. (Applause.) And we’re very proud that the Indian Government launched its own National Biomass Cookstove Initiative two years ago, that is trying to save lives and improve the conditions for cooking for millions of Indian women.

And so we will work with people around the world to help develop clean cookstoves, help to manufacture them so they are affordable for you to buy them, and we are delighted that we have partners right here with the Working Women’s Forum, with the Confederation of Indian Industries, and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, who have joined the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, to make your lives and the lives of your children better and healthier. (Applause.)

So it is for me a great honor to be here with all of you to celebrate the wonderful work that the Working Women’s Forum has done, to thank you all for the examples you are setting for both your daughters and your sons, and to pledge myself to continue working with you on the important issues that are necessary to empower women so that you have your right to be whoever you want to be and to do what you believe is right and to lay the pathway for your daughters and your sons for a better future. (Applause.)

So, Jaya – Jaya, come down here. Come down here. Come down here. This is a woman who has worked so hard. (Applause.) And all of you will have to decide how you can follow her model, so that you not only help yourselves and your families but you spread the word about microfinance, about bank accounts, about starting businesses, about getting health services, about empowering the women of this state, and giving everyone a chance to live up to your God-given potential. (Applause.)

PRN: 2011/T51-23

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/07/168835.htm

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Remarks

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Anna Centenary Library

Chennai, India

July 20, 2011

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/07/168840.htm

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Clinton meets Jayalalithaa in Chennai

TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 July 2011 - The United States is “looking at some innovative and creative ideas to break the impasse over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue,” PTI quoted visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telling Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa in Chennai Wednesday. The report did not elaborate. Meanwhile, in a public address Ms. Clinton said that India’s example of multicultural democracy should serve as a model for Sri Lanka. Commenting on Clinton’s remarks, Eezham Tamil political circles said Indian-modelled political solution will not work in the island when the military is Sinhalese. Centuries of political experience in the island shows that equal status of Tamils and Sinhalese is possible only when they have equal States, the political circles further commented.

Describing Chennai, Tamil Nadu’s capital, as an example of how much society can achieve when all citizens fully join their country’s political and economic life, she added: "Every Sri Lankan deserves the same hope and opportunity." Her comments predictably drew loud applause from the crowd, press reports said.

Addressing a crowd of students, industrialists, businessmen, artistes and members of civil society at the Anna library, Ms. Clinton said she chose to come to the coastal city as "an admirer of what has been accomplished in the country in the last 18 years".   She described Tamil Nadu as one of the "most industrialised and educated states" that indicates why India should take a leadership role in the region.   Ms. Clinton’s visit to Tamil Nadu was the only regional engagement of her much anticipated three-day official visit to India.   She is the first high-ranking US official to visit the southern state, one of the powerhouses of India’s booming economy, and a key destination for US investment. The US consulate in Chennai issues more skilled temporary worker visas than any other US outpost in the world, the Wall Street Journal says.

Aligned interest and values

"The United States and India can work together to advance democratic values in the region,” the Times of India quoted her as saying. "Our interests align and our values converge."   “We can support states transitioning into democracy in Africa and the Middle East. India’s Election Commission widely viewed as the gold standard for running elections can play a role in this," she said.   "There is no better place to speak about Asia Pacific than Chennai, which looks out onto the Bay of Bengal. Indian traders have sailed these waters for thousands of years and there influence can still be seen across the region – in the Tamil influences in the Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia and in the Ganesha gods that guard homes in Indonesia."   "India will have the duty to speak out against human rights violations in Asia. … "We encourage India not just to look east but also act east."   "India’s diverse and democratic system can serve as a model for Sri Lanka. In Chennai and in Tamil Nadu, you can see how much society can achieve when all citizens participate in political and economic life. Every citizen of Sri Lanka deserves the same."

Meeting Jayalalitha

Earlier, Ms. Clinton met with Ms. Jayalalithaa for an hour in the Secretariat. They discussed various social, political and economic issues of common interest, an official press release said.   Contrary to assertions attributed to Indian External Affairs Ministry officials last week, the Tamil question in Sri Lanka also featured in their discussions.   Ms. Jayalalithaa was quoted by PTI as pointing out that though Sri Lanka’s war en ended two years ago, Tamils in Jaffna area are still in camps and unable to go back to the original areas where they used to live.   Ms. Clinton also congratulated Ms. Jayalalithaa on her electoral victory in the April 13 Assembly polls, and invited the Tamil Nadu leader to visit the United States, PTI said.

India policy on Sri Lanka

Ahead of Ms. Clinton’s visit to Chennai, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by Sadanand Dhume, one of its columnists and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, slamming India’s soft-pedalling policies towards Sri Lanka   Noting how “New Delhi has failed to slow Sri Lanka’s rapid slide toward authoritarianism, protect the rights of minority Tamils, or stem rising Chinese influence,” Mr. Dhume asked: “how can India expect more clout on the world stage when it wields so little influence in its own neighborhood?”   “At the heart of India’s Sri Lanka problem lies the thuggish regime of President Mahinda Rajapaksa,” Mr. Dhume said. Detailing the concentration of power in the Rajapaksa family’s hand, he added “This nepotism on steroids has gone hand in hand with one of Asia’s worst human rights records. Nor has the Rajapaksa regime confined itself to mistreating minority Tamils.”   “Through all this, India’s record has hardly been inspiring. In 2009, India’s toothless admonitions failed to prevent the massacre of civilians. Two years later, it has failed to convince the Rajapaksa regime to extend an olive branch to its own citizens.”   Mr. Dhune criticized India’s policy of trying to outbid China’s influence in Sri Lanka with aid projects of its own, saying “ultimately this is a short-sighted strategy.”   “Instead, India must retool its Sri Lanka strategy to play to its own strengths: pluralism and democracy. This means keeping open the option of throwing its weight against Colombo at the UN. It means support for liberal elements in Sri Lankan society [and] working with Western democracies, Japan and the human rights community to demand a degree of accountability in Colombo as a step toward a lasting peace.”

“If India succeeds in nudging Sri Lanka toward embracing pluralism and democratic values as the foundation of prosperity, New Delhi will have enhanced both its influence and its international prestige,” he said.

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=34204