The Hindu : National : You can safely invest in India: Patil

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Sunday, Jul 11, 2004

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National

You can safely invest in India: Patil

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 10. Welcoming investment by non-resident Indians, the Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, today sought to dispel their fears that terrorist activities in some areas could affect the growth of business and industry.

Assuring a safe environment, protection and a climate conducive to growth, Mr. Patil said the NRIs could contribute a great deal towards the progress and economic development of the country. There was peace and harmony and the Government was committed to tackling the menace of terrorism.

"India is a big country, and if some activities are taking place in some places, it does not mean that there are disturbances everywhere. We are in a position to provide protection and security to all those who come to India to invest," he said.

"There is no difficulty in taking steps to provide business opportunities to the NRIs to invest. The Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, has also promised in the budget to set up special exclusive zones for NRI investments. Please, cooperate with India and India will cooperate with you," he told the participants of an NRI summit in Singapore through video-conferencing.

To a question on continuation of economic reforms, Mr. Patil said that reforms and liberalisation were started when Manmohan Singh was the Finance Minister.

"Dr. Singh is the Prime Minister now, and there is no difficulty in continuing his policies. I want to assure all of you that liberalisation is a process that cannot be reversed. If anything more needs to be done, it will be done by the Government."

Asked whether India would grant dual citizenship, Mr. Patil said the Government was looking into the matter. Would the "Pravasi Bharatiya Divas" started by the previous National Democratic Alliance be continued? Mr. Patil said that since the days of Rajiv Gandhi administration the Congress had taken steps to attract funds to India and the present Government would also continue the same policy.

"Conferences of this nature are of great help, apart from NRIs others like Thais, Chinese, Malays can also come to India to invest."

When a participant pointed out that overseas Chinese were welcomed with great warmth in their homeland while NRIs were not welcomed when they came to invest in India, Mr. Patil said that there could be a few instances but generally NRIs were treated well.

"China is cooperating with us in many areas and we have good relations. We can take corrective steps, remove the mistakes made in the past but this is not the reason to keep the potential investors away. You should not go by some exceptional cases but see things in totality and have a holistic approach while coming to India."

To a suggestion on setting up an exclusive body for NRIs to guide them and give them directions on investment, Mr. Patil said there were organisations and institutes for this purpose that could guide on making investment in profitable ventures.

To a question if NRIs could participate in the electoral process by casting their votes in the Indian Embassies abroad, Mr. Patil said the Government would examine how Indian citizens living abroad can exercise their right to vote.

Replying to a question on the "slow judicial process" in the country and arbitration proceedings, he said there was no legal difficulty in arbitration if the parties agreed to it.

P.S. Suryanarayana reports from Singapore:

Answering questions on how best the NRIs could associate themselves with India's current reforms-driven agenda, Mr. Patil said "the NRIs can contribute a great deal, and they should." Seeking their cooperation, he said "India will cooperate with them in the best possible manner."

He indicated that the idea of associating some NRIs with the proposed investment commission could be considered.

The two-day summit, organised by the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry in association with the Mumbai-based Indian Merchants' Chamber under the name `India Calling 2004', concluded after the videoconference.

The main panellists in Singapore for the video conference with the Minister were the IMC president, Nanik Rupani, and the IMC India Interest Group chairman, Suresh Kotak, besides the SICCI chairman, M. Rajaram, and the SICCI vice-chairman, Vijay Iyengar.

On the question of dual passports for persons of Indian origin, Mr. Patil said: "We are in the process of looking at it, and I think we will be able to do something in this matter."

On the comparative ascendance of India and China as also their respective treatment of their non-resident nationals, Mr. Patil said: "If China is doing something which can be emulated, there should be no difficulty in trying to do what they have been doing ... China is not our competitor. It is a country which is cooperating with us. Competition for excellence and cooperation for good relations — that is our policy with all the countries."

Against a similar backdrop of engagement and not estrangement between India and China, a sub-theme that figured during the conference was how some Asia Pacific countries were trying to "ride the dragon."

A key point made during a special session on New Delhi's latest budget was that India was now the fastest-growing economy among the major democracies and that its services export accounted for the highest rate of growth, at over 17 per cent, in the world.

Given that the SICCI and the IMC had come together to host the first-ever summit of this kind to be held outside India, a joint communique was issued summing up the general consensus among the 520 participants.

Following two plenary sessions and 10 business sessions that covered 16 sectors, the communique lauded India's new moves to increase foreign investment limits in select areas and called for reductions in import tariffs as also quantitative restrictions in some other spheres.

India and Singapore were "strongly urged" to clinch the proposed bilateral accord on comprehensive economic cooperation at the earliest.

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