Commerce min Sharma meets global CEOs in Germany; seeks FDI

Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma today asked CEOs of global companies to invest in India as the country offers attractive returns on investments, even as several economies are in the grip of recession.     

"The investments are not only fully protected, but also provide high rate of returns. This was acknowledged by the CEOs of major companies," Sharma said from Munich on phone.     

The minister addressed the Global India Business Meeting organised by the FICCI in the German city.

CEOs of leading firms from India, Germany, the US and Saudi Arabia, including Siemens, Volkswagen, AirAsia, Bajaj Auto, Genpact India and Infosys attended the conclave.     

Despite a slackening pace during the second-half of the last fiscal, India attracted $27 billion foreign direct investment in 2008-09.     

Sharma said none of the CEOs had raised any bottleneck or policy problems with him and "there is a great respect for the country". This is because when several big markets of the world are passing through a recession, "India continues to be one of the fastest growing economies".     

The Indian economy grew by 6.7 per cent in 2008-09 and is projected to expand by 7 per cent in the current fiscal, while the World Bank has forecast that the global economy would shrink by 2.9 per cent in 2009.

Attending the Global India Business Meeting, Chairman of Hasbro Alan Hassenfeld said that his company, the makers of the world famous Monopoly gameboard, would be interested to invest in India.

"Hassenfeld said he has been investing in Japan, Korea and China, he wants to invest in India too," FICCI Secretary General Amit Mitra said quoting the Hasbro chief.     

Likewise, Peter Bauer, CEO of Germany-based software firm Infineon told Mitra he is "looking at India in a big way".