Bjp To Woo Nris For Investment
Inspired by the Chinese example, the BJP has decided to tap the investment potential of non-Resident Indians. The party plans to do this through a series of interactions with the Overseas Friends of the BJP, an organisation floated in 1990.
The organisation which has been projecting Indian interests abroad comprises businessmen and professionals who are BJP supporters and sympathisers. The party now plans to provide them an investment-friendly atmosphere in the country.
The organisations first meeting was held with Planning Commission deputy chairman Jaswant Singh at Yojana Bhawan on Monday. The meeting was arranged by party treasurer Ved Prakash Goyal who was instrumental in the formation of the organisation.
About half-a-dozen NRIs expressed their keenness to invest in India and participate in the countrys development. Singh and Goyal reportedly appealed to them to adopt the role played by Chinese expatriates in the development of China, a BJP leader said. Eighty per cent of Chinas FDI comes through expatriates, he pointed out. The NRIs were confident they would succeed in bringing investment to the country, but held that bureaucratic procedures must be simplified and decisions expedited.
They were assured that the government would take all steps to help them. They are likely to interact with Prime Minister A B Vajpayee and finance minister Yashwant Sinha in the next few days.
Some BJP leaders were confident that these NRIs would succeed in mobilising funds for India. They could pool their resources and form a corpus to invest in India, one leader said.
They could also help India to get sensitive technology for defence and space research which the United States has refused to sell.
These NRIs have tremendous clout in European and other developed countries which could be ready to sell technology to India, the BJP leader said.
In the initial stages, the NRIs are likely to offer consultancy services on technology and investment, so that the developed countries are not able to dump their outdated technology in India, he said.