CII members to join Jaitley in US visit

A business delegation comprising senior members from Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) will be joining Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is on a 10 day visit to the US to foster bilateral ties.

The industry body will be exploring business opportunities with US-based firms.

"The CII delegation to the US is aimed at scaling up business to business relationship between the world's largest and the fastest growing economies," said CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee.

The CII said that among the various meetings being coordinated during the delegation's visit, discussions are being organised with pension funds like CalPERS, CalSTRS, University of Stanford Endowment, University of California Endowment, San Francisco Employees Retirement Fund and others as well as investment companies like Capricorn Investment Group, Think Investments and others.

The delegation is led by its president-designate Naushad Forbes with industry veterans like Noel N Tata, Rishad Premji, Y M Deosthalee and several others on board.

Ahead of the visit, CII noted that FDI inflows from the US have been robust and most large US companies have a footprint in the country across sectors such as manufacturing, services, infrastructure, and agriculture.

"However, there is scope for far greater funding commitment from US companies as the quantum of US investment at $13 billion from April 2000 onwards does not match the size of our respective economies. In fact, Indian investments in the US surpass this figure," it said.

Banerjee said cooperation between Indian and US firms in infrastructure and manufacturing sectors hold tremendous potential for strengthening bilateral ties.