French investments in India to touch Rs 60,000 cr by 2012

Investments by French companies in India are expected to touch Euro 10 billion (around Rs 60,000 crore) by 2012, and would be focused on automobile, energy and environment sectors among others.

Speaking to Business Standard, Jean Leviol, minister counsellor for economic, trade and financial affairs at the French Embassy in India, said that there were about 750 permanent French establishments in India, employing nearly 2,00,000 Indians, a fifth of them as engineers in French IT companies. The number was around 50,000 in 2005.

He said, “between 2008 and 2012, we expected French companies to invest Euro 10 billion. It is very much on track.”

On the other hand, Indian companies in France had invested around Euro 500 million (around Rs 2,975 crore) between 2005 and 2010, he said. Currently 90 Indian companies are operating in France.

These investments were mainly driven by IT majors and pharmaceutical companies, “but now Indian companies are showing interest in mechanical engineering, plastic, medical devices and forging”, he added.

Willing to help UID project
The French government is willing to share its experience and expertise for India’s Unique Identification Number (UID) project. Jerome Bonnafont, Ambassador of France, said that “we would be very happy to be partners in this [UID] project, since we have the experience of implementing a similar project in France”.

In France, he said, it had begun as a Personal Identity Number system began in 1941 to organise recruitment of men in the army and subsequently evolved as an important tool for the social security among other uses.