India's cities have added 90 million new residents over the last 10 years, and in the next 15 years, 250 million more Indians will have moved into cities, bringing the urban population to some 600 million - nearly twice the population of the United States today. Delhi will likely surpass Tokyo to become the largest city in the world, and Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad will all become megacities, with over 10 million people each. The GDP (gross domestic product) of Mumbai's metro area alone will be larger than Malaysia's is today.
So when we talk about economic growth in India, we're basically talking about the growth of its cities. Over the next decade and a half, India's cities could account for 70 per cent of all new jobs and 70 percent of GDP. The cities are where most of the one million people entering India's workforce every month will find their jobs. But to pull all this off will require a tremendous amount of investment - about $1 trillion over the next 15 years, an unprecedented amount of funding and about eight times what India is spending today. According to McKinsey, 70 to 80 per cent of the infrastructure that India needs by 2030 is yet to be built.
It's a tall order, but if it's not filled, demand for affordable housing will be four times supply, demand for water will be two times supply, demand for sewage treatment will be three and half times supply. So the right investments in urban infrastructure and services will be critical for India's economic growth. The right policies could help India leverage its demographic dividend and launch hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and into the global middle class, transforming India and the region.
India's economy could drive global economic growth, bringing shared prosperity across the world, including to the United States. And that is why we have made economic diplomacy such a major pillar of our relationship. Trade between our nations has grown by a factor of five over the last 15 years, to over $100 billion. And we are working hard to accelerate that growth. Last year, we elevated our economic ties by holding our first-ever Strategic and Commercial Dialogue. The new commercial track of the dialogue had several work streams, such as facilitating help to build India's smart cities, and strengthening the business climate.
As part of that latter effort, we've also reinvigorated our CEO Forum, which gives our business leaders input into government policymaking in trade and investment, technology exchanges, and workforce development. We were also able to break through a deadlock on the Trade Facilitation Agreement at the WTO, and, through our Trade Policy Forum, we agreed on comprehensive work plans in services, agriculture, intellectual property, and manufacturing. These moves are already paying dividends, and American investors are showing with their dollars that they believe in India. According to data compiled by the US Treasury, our companies now invest more in Indian equities - over $12 billion in 2015 - than they do in China. And according to the US-India Business Council, US firms invested over $15 billion in India in the last two years, and will reportedly sign deals worth another $27 billion over the next two years.
These are the types of investments that India will need to grow its cities and provide those hundreds of millions of new urban residents with clean water, electricity, jobs, transportation, healthcare, education, entertainment, and more. These are the types of investments that will foster in-demand skills, greater productivity, and innovative technology.
And we believe that US FDI (foreign direct investment)could double if India continues to liberalise its investment regime. That could mean more US firms bringing their comparative advantages in technology, expertise, and capital, creating more jobs, skills, and growth. We strongly support Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Make in India campaign, which envisions India as an elite manufacturing hub. But companies involved in global manufacturing need transparency, predictability, and legal certainty.
India's government is working on some important reforms to make it a more attractive destination for FDI, including the announcement of the Single-Window Clearance process for foreign investors, and the easing of FDI restrictions in sectors including construction, insurance, stock markets, and railways.
These are all great moves, and our companies are excited about them. They want to invest more in India because they know that it will be one of the 21st century's great growth stories. And one of the best tools out there to increase US investment in India would be a high-standard bilateral investment treaty (BIT). A high-standard BIT would send an important signal to US investors that India is open for business. It would also support some of India's top initiatives, such as Digital India, Smart Cities, and Make in India.
We realise there's some work to be done before we get there, and we're anxious to get started. In the meantime, our governments are working to strengthen the ties between our innovators and entrepreneurs. For example, we recently connected the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator with Ahmedabad's Centre for Innovation, Incubation, and Entrepreneurship. Last year, they signed an MoU at an event in California, with Modi standing right beside their representatives. Ahmedabad's incubator is now part of the Los Angeles incubator's Network for Global Innovation. The two organisations also agreed to create a Landing Pad, a reciprocal programme that enables clean-tech entrepreneurs to better access the California and Indian markets.
And our long-running US-India Science and Technology Forum has connected more than 14,000 American and Indian scientists. The Fulbright and Fulbright-Nehru programmes, meanwhile, have resulted in the exchanges of more than 18,000 Indian and US students and scholars across the full range of academic disciplines - and we can proudly count some in this room among the distinguished alumni of those programmes.
We're building these connections because we know that our own future success is inextricably linked to India's success. We know that a strong, prosperous India can be our equal partner in addressing some of the most pressing regional and global challenges of our time, whether it's securing the seas or fighting climate change.
Edited excerpts from a speech, "US Investing in India's Growth" by Nisha Desai Biswal, US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, at the University of Chicago Center, in New Delhi, on April 19