Salzburg Global Seminar organized its 467th Session in Salzburg , Austria from 8th – 13th December 2009. The topic of this session was Asia's Emerging Powers: Rivalry and Global Responsibility.

The Salzburg Global Seminar convenes imaginative thinkers from different cultures and institutions, organizes problem-focused initiatives, supports leadership development, and engages opinion-makers through active communication networks, all in partnership with leading institutions from around the world and across different sectors of society.

The Salzburg Global Seminar is an independent, non-governmental organization with a Board of Directors drawn from diverse regions, backgrounds and fields of expertise. It seeks in its faculty, fellows and staff people of the highest intellectual and leadership capacity from around the world and from all sectors of society, and attempts to benefit from their breadth of experience and perspective across the full range of its work.

Salzburg Global Seminar extended a Special Invitation to OIA Chairman, Amb.V. B. Soni to participate as a Special Guest Faculty Member for delivering two key note speeches on the following subjects:

1. " Major Power Relations in Asia: Crouching Tigers, Hidden Dragon"
2. " Rise of Asian Multinational Corporations"

Both the speeches delivered by Amb. Soni created an impact on the other leading Chinese and Japanese faculty members and the 70 odd foreign participants from about 25 countries. The biggest compliment was paid by the Chairman of the Session former editor of "The Economist" magazine of London Mr. Bill Emmott. He found Amb. Soni’s first speech thought provoking, aggressive and brutally frank, particularly those pertaining to India-China relations!

While summing up the proceedings of the session Mr Emmott remarked: "Ambassador Soni's speech has to be admired in the same manner one would enjoy Sachin Tendulkar's scintillating century against some hostile fast bowling" (meaning the Chinese). The question-answer session that followed was gripping when our Amb. Soni crossed swords with the President of China Institute of International Studies Ambassador Ma Zhengang. Amb. Soni’s deft handling of even difficult questions drew all around admiration from the audience which consisted of top level academics, strategic policy thinkers and those belonging to think-tanks.

In his second speech, OIA Chairman batted for Brand India and how the rapidly increasing economy of 1.2 trillion dollars had catapulted India into the one of the fastest growing economy in the world. This has been made possible because of the entrepreneurial skills of the rising number of world class companies in India. They are now acquiring foreign companies and turning them successful ventures. He then introduced OIA and how it is helping developing countries in Africa by putting up infrastructure projects in key areas. During the question answers session, Amb. Soni gave further details of how in the spirit of South-South co-operation India companies like OIA are adding to capacity building, skill development and transfer of technology in those countries.

Amb. Soni's exclusive interview at the Seminar will shortly be uploaded on www.youtube.com

However his speeches are exclusively available on audio, to access the same kindly follow
the below

link: http://www.salzburgglobal.org/2009/includes/FacultyPopUp.cfm?IDSPECIAL
_EVENT=2003&IDRecords=135187&Participation=Faculty

and select the speech.

To view Amb. Soni’s full length speeches, please contact the PR & Communications Dept.