India is seeking investments from Germany and the UK to develop National Manufacturing and Investment Zones, proposed under the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project.
"Major countries are coming forward to be partners for establishment of NMIZs. Japan has already come and has made major commitments. We are in active discussion with Germany and the UK and you will see things changing," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said.
Sharma said that Germany can help in developing green technologies.
Seven National Manufacturing and Investment Zones (NMIZs) have been notified along the DMIC and the project envisages development of world-class industrial townships on a public private partnership model.
The National Manufacturing Policy (NMP) would be a key enabler for setting of NMIZs. These planned big enclaves could even subsume special economic zones.
The $90 billion DMIC project is being developed in collaboration with Japan as a manufacturing and trading hub. Japan has committed to invest $4.5 billion in this project. The Union Cabinet had approved an expenditure of Rs 18,500 crore on development of infrastructure for the project, which will get a boost from the new NMP.
The mega-infrastructure project will cover 1,483 km between Delhi and Mumbai.
The NMP seeks to raise share of the manufacturing sector in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 25% from the present 15-16% in the next decade.
It envisages facilitation by the government in infrastructure development and improvement of the business environment through rationalisation and simplification of the regulatory framework.
Commenting on India-Iran trade relations in the wake of sanctions being imposed by the US and Europe, Sharma said Iran is traditional trading partner of the country and "we will remain engage with them".
"When it comes to our engagements with any country or our neighbourhood, those are our sovereign decisions and those does not be mixed up with the decisions which others have taken because of their own comprehensions," he said.
He added that India would abide only by UN sanctions, and will not implement those by individual nations or groupings.