US gives Infrastructure Initiative draft MoU

India and the US Thursday identified areas where the two countries can start immediate collaboration, which include investment, cluster-related initiatives, Investment Summit and identification of projects.

During a meeting between Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and visiting US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, the two sides agreed to initiate identification of real projects where partners from both the countries will collaborate.

Pritzker gave a draft MoU on US-India Infrastructure Initiative proposal, which Sitharaman termed as "a very positive step" and would be taken forward.

"It was one of the very good meetings where both the sides are keen on having a lot of things moving forward. So before the prime minister's visit, it was more than once expressed by both sides that they are looking for good deliverables," Sitharaman said after the meeting.

"The impression I got from the Secretary was that this visit is something they were looking forward to. They are looking at various different things which can happen during this visit and the sense I got was that they are keen on building on relationship with India," she said.

She apprised Pritzker about the administrative simplifications and government facilitation measures and also about the manufacturing initiatives like special economic zones, national industrial manufacturing zones and other industrial corridors and the plan to build smart cities.