Maran Stands Up For Foreign Investors

Industry Minister Murasoli Maran yesterday rebuffed an opposition demand that India be able to choose which foreigners can invest in the country.

We should not fear that foreign investment would grab our economy or undermine our economy, Maran told the summit here.

No more indefinite protection should be given to domestic industry in the name of swadeshi (self-reliance), Maran said, targeting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has opposed giving a free hand to foreign investment. Watched by Jaswant Singh, who was Finance Minister in a BJP government that fell after 12 days in 1996, Maran targeted a pet BJP argument that foreign funds in silicon chips are fine but not in computer chips.

 

There is a controversy between computer chips and potato chips. I want to end that. We dont discriminate between computer chips and potato chips if they create jobs for the people, Maran said. Maran said foreign investors often brought technology, while overprotected domestic industry could hurt consumer interests. Self-relia- nce does not mean reinventing the wheel. Self-reliance does not mean autarchy, Maran said. It is high time we created a consumer club like the Bombay Club, he said. The Bombay Club is a term used to describe a band of domestic industrialists who have criticised the open door to foreign firms launched under Indias economic reform launched in 1991. Reuters

Maran did say that domestic firms needed protection if they were subject to unfair foreign competition. We should give protection to domestic industry if the other countries act in unfair ways.

He stressed that Indias economic fundamentals were strong and he urged foreign investors to put their funds into the vast South Asian country.

We are the most stable emerging economy in the world, he said. Reuters