Us To Become Largest Investor In 10 Years
The United States is poised to become the largest investor in India and the biggest trading partner of the country in the next 10 years, according to US ambassador Frank Wisner.
At a meeting organised yesterday in Calcutta by Bengal Initiative, a body formed by the leading industrialists of West Bengal to bring about states industrial resurgence, Wisner said: The US will be Indias largest partner in terms of capital flow and investments in the future. The US India Business Council is scheduled to visit Calcutta on December 9-11 this year to explore investment opportunities in West Bengal, the North-East, Orissa, Bihar and Bangladesh with the assistance of industry chambers.
Wisner pointed out that according to World Bank estimates, India has the potential to become one of the largest economies of the world, if only there was an improvement in infrastructure.
The ambassador, who has come at the fag end of his tenure in India, said that the private sector must have a constructive partnership with the public sector in investing in the infrastructure in the country.
There is need for a sharp increase in power outgo, and sectors like telecom, transportation, health and education, said Wisner.
However, there must be adequate guarantee of returns to the investor, he said.
Applauding the reform process, Wisner acknowledged that there has been a greater flexibility of financial institutions, debt procurement opening of the insurance sector to international competition.
According to Wisner, the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s led to reconsidering of options and in the background of Indias liberalised economy, there seemed a greater identity of view between the two countries.
The government needs to allow the capital markets to function as freely as possible for ensuring growth of the economy, said Wisner.
Some of the critical and sensitive issues concerning both the countries are centred around Asias stability and security, Asia-Pacific Economic Community, weapons of mass destruction and the nuclear age in warfare to be brought to a logical end.