Largest ever US trade mission to visit India to transact deals

New Delhi, Nov 21 (UNI) The United States is highly bullish on India, with US Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Franklin L Lavin expressing the hope that the bouyant performance of Indian economy would translate into billions of dollars of overseas investments.

Mr Lavin, who is leading a CEO's Business Development Mission to India, in a Video-Conferencing from Washington D C told Indian journalists that more than 200 companies who are part of this mission were keen to transact business with Indian corporates.

He said many of these would be coming to India for the first time and their interests span a wide spectrum of activities. These include energy, financial services, telecom, health care, aerospace, defence, information technology and retail.

There is also diversity in terms of the size of companies represented, with small, medium and large businesses all participating in the Summit. For instance, 76 per cent of participants represent small companies (1 to 500 employees), five per cent represent medium-size companies (500 to 1,000 employees) and 19 per cent large companies (more than 1,000 employees).

The main event of the Summit will be held at Hotel Grand Hyatt in Mumbai from November 29 to 30. Two key topics that will be taken up relate to co-operation in nuclear energy and 'Mumbai as a Regional Financial Centre.' The Summit is being organsied jointly by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry(FICCI), the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and trade promotion agencies of the US.

Representatives of these organisations were present at the pre-departure briefing by Mr Levin.

FICCI Secretary General Amit Mitra said that deals even at present were being negotiated between Indian and American companies, which alone could result in FDI flow of one billion dollars.

At the Summit more such deals are expected to take place, he said.

Mr Levin will later meet government leaders and senior officials during his visit to the capital.

Mr Levin said the main objective for the Summit has been laid down by US President George Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which is to improve the policy framework to make the investment climate more congenial.

This entails lifting remaining FDI caps on certain key sectors and setting up regulatory bodies in some others. ''The regulatory framework needs to be streamlined further,'' he said.

Besides, tariff rates continue to be high and need to be brought down further and improvements needed as relates the Intellectual Propery Rights regime.

Mr Lavin said the growth rate of eight per cent per annum is reflective of its high potential to absorb investments. The US economy too has been doing well of late and thus the high growth rates of the two economies make them natural allies as business partners.

Asked how did the investors rate the Chinese economy with regard to the India, Mr Lavin said it was difficult to say whether American companies would shift investments from China to India, but the American government was 'very bullish' on the Indian economy sustaining this momentum.

UNI GS CS KN1605