A United States-India Business Council (USIBC) delegation last week met Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to explore business opportunities here and to foster America’s trade ties with the state.
The delegation was led by USIBC Chairman Ajay Banga and President Ron Somers.
Stressing commitment to create congenial business climate, Yadav said that US companies were welcome to be a partner in the growth envisaged across different sectors in UP, particularly infrastructure development. Somers invited the CM to visit the US early next year.
“We are impressed by the bold initiatives of UP to develop infrastructure and fresh policy interventions for improving 'doing-business' environment. The youthful and dynamic leadership of chief minister holds enormous promise to awaken American companies' interest in UP,” Somers said.
USIBC would work towards convincing the US business community to invest in UP and try to facilitate a full US business delegation visit to the state in March, Banga said.
The delegation also interacted with senior officials, including officiating Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan and Infrastructure & Industrial Development Commissioner (IIDC) Anil Kumar Gupta.
A presentation on socio-economic, industrial and infrastructure projects was made to the delegation by Udyog Bandhu, the state government’s industry interface.
Somers enquired if American companies could bid in state projects, especially expressway, airport and other public private partnership (PPP) projects.
The IIDC replied that since the developers were required to have working experience in India, US companies could participate in such projects by forming a special purpose vehicle with Indian developers.
Somers also said that the passing of Indian Liability Bill was essential for real fructification of the Indo-US nuclear deal. Indian states could then procure power from nuclear power plants irrespective of location within India, thereby easing the process.
The delegation also said that under India’s defence offset' policy, US companies wanted to invest $3 billion in defence and security-related fields.
