Beijing, Jan. 15: Urging China to join India in creating a world of positive externalities and mutual prosperity, rather than one based on balance of power calculations and animosity, the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, today said the simultaneous development of both countries would have a positive influence on the rest of the world.

Addressing an august gathering of officials and intellectuals at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) that included envoys of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, besides China's Ambassador to India, Dr. Singh said three key areas needed to be focussed upon to take existing bilateral ties to greater heights in the future.

First, there was a need to bridge the "knowledge gap" between both countries with the objective of generating proper awareness and contact at the people-to-people level, he said.

"We need a broad-based comprehensive dialogue at the level of intelligentsia, media, non-governmental professionals and the worlds of culture and the arts," Dr. Singh said.

Second, he said, there is need for expanding cooperation in a broad range of functional sectors, learning from each other's national developmental experiences.

"We would like to learn from China's success in the creation of physical infrastructure, strategies to provide productive employment outside the agricultural sector, and poverty alleviation. The other areas for potential cooperation are science and technology, public health, education, institution building, water resource management and disaster management," he said.

Finally, the Prime Minister said that both India and China should harness their complementarities and synergies in the areas of trade and business. While India had a growing consumer market, skilled human resources and software excellence, China too had a large market, a manufacturing prowess and cost competitiveness that was the envy of the globe. A platform for exponential growth could be created by taking advantage of these features, he added.

Elaborating, Dr. Singh said that Asia today is more integrated than ever before in terms of trade in goods and services and investment of capital and knowledge. Constructive ideas for an open and inclusive economic architecture from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific were being discussed in all regional and multilateral fora, including the East Asian Summit, he said, and added that pursuing initiatives the "Asian Way" in an environment of peace and prosperity should be the objective of all in the region, and particularly India and China.

"Our two countries should be at the forefront of the emergence of a more democratic global order and of multilateral approaches to resolving global issues," Dr. Singh said, and pointedly remarked that international institutions like the U. N. Security Council do not reflect reality and "must be democratised.

India and China are in the midst of rapid transformation with the development agenda taking centre stage in both societies. India is changing and the success of China is acting as a stimulus to that change, he said. Each country's system may be different, but their people "are united in their aspiration for a better future," he added.

The world knows it and is watching it with interest, he said. (ANI)