Modi in US: Pleased US CEOs hopeful about investment possibilities in India

New York: Eight captains of American industry with links to the financial sector on Thursday said they had a very good and positive roundtable meeting with visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel here.

They said that they had come away from the meeting very pleased, satisfied and positively hopeful about investment possibilities in India.

"Overall, I was very pleased with the comments of the Prime Minister. India is very attractive to us," said Vikki Fuller, Chief Investment Officer, New York State Common Retirement Fund.

"The Indian Government has already undertaken massive reforms and the key message was to continue doing what you are doing," said James Dimon, CEO, JP Morgan Chase. "It was a great meeting with the Prime Minister and very constructive as well," Dimon added.

"India has one of the highest levels of growth and has a pro-reform government," said-Stephen A. Schwarzman, CEO, Blackstone.

Earlier, kicking off his five-day visit to the United States with the roundtable interaction with American CEOs linked to the financial sector, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "Our government strongly supports Public Private Partnership." He further went on to speak about the efforts made by his government over the last 15 months to increase investment in areas of taxation, infrastructure and foreign direct investment.

Welcoming the positive predictions about India by global financial bodies and rating agencies, the Prime Minister said, "GDP growth last year was 7.3 percent. There has been a 40 percent increase in FDI. The World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Moody`s have said that the economic climate is bound to improve further."

The eight CEOs who took part in this first roundtable with Prime Minister Modi included (1)Vicki Fuller, Chief Investment Officer, New York State Common Retirement Fund; (2) Jamie Dimon, Chairman, CEO and President, J P Morgan; (3) Steve Schwarzman, Chairman, CE) and Co-Founder, Blackstone; (4) Charles Kaye, Co-CEO, Warburg Pincus; (5) Henry Kravis, Co-Chairman and Co-CEO, KKR; (6) Bill Ford, CEO, General Atlantic; (7) Peter Ford, President and CEO, AIG Insurance and (8) Chase Coleman, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Tiger Global.

The spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs, Vikas Swarup, told media after the meeting that the Prime Minister spoke in a frank and candid manner.

"The Prime Minister spoke very candidly and outlined his vision for India. He asked the CEOs to give a detailed note on the concerns that they have," Swarup said.

Modi, who is on his second visit to the United States, has a "packed schedule" ahead of him, which includes addressing world leaders at a landmark UN Sustainable Development Summit, interacting with top CEOs and Indian diaspora in the Silicon Valley.

In New York the roundtable on the financial sector is being described as a very important meeting with foreign institutional investors (FIIs) expressing a keenness to invest in India, and seeking promised deliverables from the Indian Government.

Prime Minister Modi will also attend roundtables on media and communications hosted by News Corp`s Rupert Murdoch and attend a dinner with Fortune 500 company CEOs. He would then fly to the West Coast for his visit to California from September 26-27.