India seeks 'mega investments' from US corporations

Washington, June 9 : Minister of State for Industry, Ashwani Kumar has said India is seeking ''mega investments'' from major US companies to promote petroleum, petro-chemical and other industrial ventures for which a Cabinet policy will soon be drafted.

Mr Kumar has come to the state for the sole purpose of eliciting views of the CEOs of major US corporations so that their views and concerns could be reflected in the Cabinet policy.

In an informal interaction with reporters here yesterday, he said, ''Basically this is a pro-active campaign to woo mega investments into investment regions for which a Cabinet policy will soon be drafted and adopted.'' The investment regions, called Petroleum, Petro-chemical, Investment Regions (PPCIRs), would be initially located in West Bengal, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, where the basic concept of anchor-tenant already exists, and the facility would be upgraded to world class entities. These would be modeled after similar projects in Singapore, Shanghai and Thailand, Mr Kumar said.

Besides PPCIR, the investments would also be sought in manufacturing units and the IT industry, the Minister added.

The incentives would include tax breaks and provision of a single clearance window for approval of the projects.

''Our Government has assured investors a single point clearing authority at the state level and the Centre will become an enabler and a facilitator of the mega investments,'' the Minister said.

Mr Kumar, who has already met the CEOs of several companies, including BP, Eastman, Honeywell, Whirlpool, ExonMobil, GE, BASF, EDS and others, said they were extremely positive about India.

'' The majority of them specifically stated that they would expand their existing capacities in India and go in for fresh green field projects as everybody, whom we engaged with, was convinced of the country's economic potential,'' the Minister said.

UNI