New York, June 10: Inviting Americans and NRIs to invest in India, Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley has assured them that the country has taken decisive steps to upgrade infrastructure and fine tune economic policies. Jaitley also offered investors all facilities and incentives in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in which private sector would play the major role.
"Indian economy because of its basic soundness has withstood the shock of terrorism, Iraq war and global economic slow down and has continued to grow", he said addressing a meeting of the India China Chamber of Commerce yesterday.
He said India had achieved economic growth despite anti-terrorism steps taking a large chunk of the country's resources, both men and material. "India has turned the corner to become a nation of surpluses from one of shortages whether in industry, education and telecommunications".
Promising streamlined investment process, Jaitley said investors would have one window clearance of all their problems and issues that might come up.
The Minister said India is seeking investments in diverse areas and has great potential in areas of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and telecommunication.
Impressive presentations were made on the facilities provided in the SEZs including tax holiday, provision of services, zero licensing, 100 per cent FDI in industries, development of road and rail links, during the meeting.
Criticising attempts in some American states to restrict outsourcing of call centers and information technology services, Jaitley said Indian government has taken up the issue at high levels in the US.
Jaitley also criticized the huge subsidies being given by the rich countries to their farmers and said this affected the competitiveness of the farmers in the developing nations where governments cannot afford to subsidize agriculturalists to such an extent.
On economic liberalisation in India, he said the policy "has come to stay" as now they have the full support of the people to whom the benefits of an open economy have started percolating.
"They now realize that this is the best way out of poverty", he said pointing out the immense progress the country has made since independence when more than 50 people were below poverty line.
Stressing the need for opening up of markets of developed nations for developing states, he said globalization demanded market access and not market denial.
He asked those who complain of slow economic reforms to remember that it was only 12 years ago that the country embarked upon the road to opening up the economy and said the progress has been impressive in such a short period.
Jaitley, who is also the Law Minister, said the government was considering ways to reduce the backlog of cases.
"Among the areas being looked into is mandatory conciliation as around 95 per cent cases in the United States are resolved through this method", he added. Bureau Report