India is set to dominate in a new post-western world but "that did not necessarily mean that the United States of America and Europe have had it," the last governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, has said.
Patten, now chancellor of Oxford university, made the remarks in a speech he gave at a recent alumni weekend, held by the university.
Lord Patten of Barnes, famed for handing back the sovereignty of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China in 1997 marking the end of British rule, told the audience of Oxford alumni that there had been a major shift in the global balance of economic power and that India and China would dominate this century, creating a new global hierarchy dominated by the East.
"Nowadays India invests more in the UK than vice versa," he said. In fact, India is soon expected to become the third largest economy in the world.
China is currently the second largest economy in the world but, by 2020, in the new post-western world, China would overtake the USA to become the largest economy in the world, Patten said.
When considering whether leadership should come from Europe, the 67-year-old former student of Balliol College, who is also chairman of the BBC Trust, pointed out the currency union was falling apart. "Why is it that Europe has failed to implement a series of measures to make Europe more competitive?" he asked.
Patten, a Catholic, who oversaw the oversaw the Pope's visit to Britain in September 2010, said that populations were falling fast in Europe, especially in Italy, Spain and Poland and the number of people in work supporting those in retirement was falling extremely fast.
Checkout popular ISWConnect iPhone, Android, Blackberry & Any Mobile/PC/Mac Compatible Apps for Indian Singles Worldwide - Joining, Browsing, Sending Interest - All FREE! SURPRISING TECHNOLOGY: http://ISWConnect.com web app works on Laptop/PC/Mac as well. Thousands Of Members! LIMITED Time Completely FREE Access For Everyone.
Oxford academics from a range of departments delivered lectures showing how they were tackling a range of global challenges from population growth to increased energy consumption, climate change, living on social networking sites, the science behind earthquakes and emerging infectious diseases.
A highlight was a 'Mathematical Tour of Oxford' by Professor Marcus du Sautoy, who had presented the BBC documentary 'The Story of Maths', which had revealed that Indians had made many of the key mathematical breakthroughs in the world before the West had, even before Sir Isaac Newton was born, including inventing the zero, despite common misapprehensions that Math was a Western invention.
