Kamal Nath calls on overseas Indians

New Delhi, Jan 9: Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath today invited the overseas Indians to reach out to global Small and Medium Enterprises (SME"s) for catalysing their economic engagement with India. While speaking at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Plenary Session on “Trade and Business Opportunities" here, he said: “I invite you to form meaningful partnerships with Indian firms looking to set up beach heads overseas by providing technology, logistical marketing and financial support".

“To invest in Indian markets as financial investors overseas Indian investors would also find it lucrative to invest in India"s skill based industries. The achievements of the IT and automobile industries have been well showcased," he added.

He stated that to secure the growth story, there are four levels of collaboration currently taking place viz., private-public partnerships for infrastructure projects, private companies partnering with universities to work around the skilled labour constraint, private companies partnering with each other to build efficient supply chains, and private companies partnering with foreign investors.

Regarding healthcare industry, he said, “India has the capabilities to develop world-class healthcare innovations for global use, from product development such as drug discovery, clinical trials and manufacturing, to services like diagnostics and drug delivery."

The Minister emphasised that India has huge investment potential in the sectors like entertainment, tourism, chemicals industry and education.

He further stated that as a trading nation, India is now firmly established at the top of the table of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), irrespective of the outcome of the Doha Development Round, and bilateral trade agreements are currently in the pipeline with at least ten potential partners ranging from ASEAN via the EU to the US and Canada.

Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister T.K. A. Nair, and Sunil Bharti Mittal, CMD of Bharti Group were also present on the occasion.

ANI