Govt. to consider regional foreign facilitation centres: Ahamed

Kochi, Sep 23 (UNI) The Central government will look into the demand for setting up regional foreign facilitation centres to provide services like issuing of visas and attestation of documents, Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed said today.

Inaugurating a seminar here on 'Facilitation of FDI in Kerala', organised by the Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr Ahamed said that his personal view was that there should be a ''domestication of foreign policy''.

This would entail setting up of regional centres of foreign offices so that people do not have to rush to Delhi every time they need a visa or exporters need to get documents attested.

''This demand has been raised by Kerala also and it will be looked into,'' he added.

Talking on the need to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) in Kerala, the minister said that the state, despite its high social indices and large NRI remittances, had attracted less that two per cent of the total FDI in the country.

Stressing the need to create a conducive atmosphere for FDI and private investment in the state, the minister said that private and foreign investors looked for a stable political environment, sound long-term economic policies and flexible labour laws.

He identified the infrastructure sector, tourism, information technology, marine products processing, bio-technology and the traditional industries as areas where Kerala could attract FDI.

On traditional industries such as coir, Mr Ahamed said that eco-friendly products had a huge demand overseas and Kerala could capitalise on its ''core competence'' in this traditional industry by coming up with innovative products and designs.

Earlier, welcoming the gathering, Kerala Chamber of Commerce and industry president John Paul urged the external affairs minister to facilitate setting up of the diplomatic offices of other countries, especially the Middle-East, in Kerala.

There was also a need for local attestation services of documents as exporters face a lot of difficulties in the present centralised system, he added.

Member of Parliament Sebastian Paul and former CII chairman T R Reghulal were also present UNI ARC1329