FM to attend G20 meet in Australia, hold roadshows

Finance Minister P Chidambaram will visit Australia later this week to attend the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors and hold roadshows to attract investment.
Chidambaram will be accompanied by ministry officials, including Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram, on his visit to Sydney. Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan will also attend the meeting.
Sources said the minister will highlight the huge potential of India's infrastructure sector to investors.
As per the schedule, Chidambaram will attend the G20 meeting on February 22 and 23, followed by investor conferences on February 24 and 25.
The G20 meeting will focus on the impact of US Federal Reserve tapering, International Monetary Fund quota reforms and steps to facilitate exchange of information to check tax evasion.

Last month, the US Fed started scaling down its bond purchase programme as its economy showed signs of recovery.

The IMF quota reform had hit a road block with US lawmakers not agreeing to the new funding mechanism.
As far the roadshows are concerned, Chidambaram will interact with the business community and sell the India growth story. He had conducted similar roadshows in major global financial hubs, including Toronto, Japan, Hong Kong, Germany and Singapore.
India needs foreign capital to fund its current account gap. The current account deficit (CAD) had touched a record high of USD 88.2 billion, or 4.8 per cent of GDP, in 2012-13.

An estimate of the CAD in this financial year will be made in the interim budget to be presented by Chidambaram in Parliament on Monday.
The country needs USD 1 trillion of investments in the infrastructure sector during the five-year period ending 2017.