 "FM leaves for G-20 meet today")
Among other things, he’ll be discussing trade and investment issues with heads of the South Korean delegation there. The meeting was requested by their government, said officials here. Their Finance Minister, Hyun Oh-Seok, will attend.
The official reason given was that Korea wanted to discuss common points to be raised at the G-20 meet. The request also comes as Korean steel giant Posco announcement that it was scrapping its proposed Rs 530 crore project in Karnataka due to numerous issues which the state here hasn’t been able to resolve. Progress on its other investment projects, especially in Odisha, continue to be slow.
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Posco had pointed to the delays in getting iron ore mining rights and opposition from residents to land acquisition. As for the Odisha project, on for eight years, it is only recently that some momentum is visible, on land acquisition and the clearing of legal obstacles to the granting of an iron ore exploration licence.
Some major Korean companies such as LG Electronics, Samsung and Hyundai are a big presence in certain sectors, such as consumer electronics and automobiles. India, where the rupee is under strong external pressure, is also eager to get more foreign direct investment. In 2012-13, South Korea contributed Rs 120 crore of foreign direct investment, just 0.6 per cent of the fund flow into India.
On the larger front, the G-20 leaders will discuss the current global economic situation, with the Euro zone projected to remain in recession during 2013 by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The meeting is to focus on measures to deal with the general global slowdown and allied issues.
The IMF recently lowered the global growth forecast for 2013 to 3.1 per cent, from the earlier 3.3 per cent. For 2014, it cut the forecast to 3.8 per cent from the earlier four per cent
Reserve Bank governor D Subbarao and deputy governor Urjit Patel will also be in Moscow for the meetings.
The agenda includes long-term financing for infrastructure projects. The ministers would also discuss the report of the G-20 framework working group, on structural reforms and on strengthening the countries' medium-term fiscal frameworks. The framework working group is co-chaired by Canada and India.
The meeting of the finance ministers and central bank governors would be followed by the G-20 Summit at St Petersberg on September 5-6.