KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is hopeful of a "positive outcome" during the next five-six months to the debate on whether or not to allow foreign direct investment in the Indian retail sector.

Taking questions after addressing a business gathering, Dr. Singh admitted that there was considerable opposition to the move, which was being discussed by the United Progressive Alliance Government.

Dr. Singh said that West Bengal Chief Minister Budhadeb Bhattacharjee was trying to attract foreign investment to his State in this part of the world recently.

"Now, nobody would think that communists were very good at attracting foreign direct investment, but we have a Left Front Government which is now going out of its way to create ... in West Bengal, world-class facilities to attract FDI ... ," he said.

"Right signal"

"On the whole, the competition for attracting investment is creating the right sort of signal in the minds of our politicians and those politicians who want to obstruct business practice [and] business processes... are increasingly becoming a minority rather than being a dominant force," the Prime Minister said.

Suggesting that the "act of investment" in a country was also an "act of faith" in the future of a country, Dr. Singh told businesspersons: "Have faith in our country." Competition was a two-edged weapon; it helped those who were strong and hurt those who were weak.

Stating that he would be the last one to claim that everything in India was rosy, the Prime Minister, however, pointed out that India had made a break with the past in 1991 and that economic liberalisation had come to stay.

"I would not claim that the process has reached a [finish] ... But a great deal has been achieved. Indian entrepreneurs do not need licence to start business."

According to him, the process of liberalisation was also a struggle for the minds of the people, in which the Government was succeeding despite the problems.

Pointing to the change of governments in India in the last 15 years, Dr. Singh pointed out that no government had tried to reverse the direction of liberalisation.

This process had widespread acceptance in the country, he said, and invited Asean business to come and test the waters in India. India would need a minimum investment of about $150 billion in the infrastructure sector.

Asked if Bangalore remained the "intellectual capital" of India, Dr. Singh said that "in many ways" it remained the intellectual capital, but Hyderabad, Chennai and New Delhi had also become centres of high-tech activity.

Radical changes

The "weak spot" in the country was that India had concentrated on high-tech software and had not paid enough attention to hardware. "Please come and look at the possibilities ... in the development of the hardware sector in our country," he told the assembled businesspersons.

Pointing out that India today was engaged in a radical transformation of its road and rail sectors, he said modernisation and expansion plans of the Delhi and Mumbai airports based on a public-private partnership were also on the horizon.

"New airports are also being built in Hyderabad, in Bangalore. So, in the next five-six years, India's infrastructure should also undergo a sea change," the Prime Minister added.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail