The Hindu : Business : FDI in retail and real estate soon: Kamal Nath

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 10, 2005

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Business

FDI in retail and real estate soon: Kamal Nath

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 9. The Government is likely to come out with a policy on opening up the retail and real estate sectors for foreign direct investment within the next two months.

This was indicated here today by the Commerce and Industry, Kamal Nath, who said "various parameters'' in this regard were being examined.

He told newspersons that discussions in this regard had already been held with the retail sector and policy should emerge within the next two months. He stressed, however, that "incremental FDI'' was being sought rather than foreign investment which would displace the existing investment. More discussions were to be held, he said.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Indo-American chamber of Commerce Summit on infrastructure, he said the policy on FDI in retail may be part of the offers on services made by India at the World Trade Organsiation (WTO), but would not be driven by offers made by others.

As for FDI in the real estate sector, he felt it should be driven towards construction and not just investment in land holdings.

The new policy would address this issue, he added.

Earlier, delivering the inaugural address at the summit, Mr. Kamal Nath called for FDI in the infrastructure sector which formed the backbone of any growing economy. In particular, he asked investors to look at areas like power, highways, roads, seaports and telecom.

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