Indian investments in foreign JVs up by 53.2%

Total number of proposals, during FY 08, stood at 2,261, much higher than the 1,817 proposals registered in the previous year, posting a growth of 24.4 per cent, RBI said.        

While nearly 35 per cent of the proposals for outward FDI were directed towards Singapore, around 23 per cent of the proposals went to Netherlands followed by British Virgin Islands (seven per cent), the apex bank said.        

"Large Indian investments going to countries like Singapore, Cyprus, Netherlands, UAE, British Virgin Islands and Mauritius reflect the generally liberal policies of these countries, particularly the involving favourable tax treatment and investment protection treaties," RBI said.        

For the quarter ended March, 2008, Singapore, Mauritius, Cyprus and UAE together accounted for a 50 per cent of the outward proposals on or above $5 million, RBI said.        

Out of the total FDI proposals cleared, almost 95 per cent of the investments had deal amounts on or above $5 million, while during the Jan-March period, investments of this size amounted to 91 per cent of the total outbound deals, RBI said.        

During the year, nearly 43 per cent of the proposals came from the manufacturing followed by non-financial services (11 per cent) and trading (four per cent), RBI data said.