India, US ink MoU to increase American participation in infra

India and the US today signed an MoU to set up an infrastructure collaboration platform for increasing participation of American firms in the country, as the two countries aim to increase their trade five-fold.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed here, establishes a US-India Infrastructure Collaboration Platform, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
The pact has been signed in a follow-up to the joint statement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama in September this year, the statement said.
As per the MoU, "both the governments intend to coordinate and cooperate with the goal of facilitating US industry participation in Indian infrastructure projects to improve the bilateral commercial relationship and benefit both the participants' economies," Finance Ministry said.

The two-way trade between India and the US has increased five-fold since 2001 to about USD 100 billion.
In September, Modi and the US President had committed to facilitating actions necessary to increase Indo-US trade by another five-fold.

The Department of Economic Affairs and the US Department of Commerce today signed the MoU here, the ministry said.
Representatives of ministries such as Urban Development, Commerce and Industry, Railways, Road Transport and Highways, Micro Small and Medium Enterprises, Power, New & Renewable Energy, Information and Broadcasting and Communications & Information Technology were present during the signing of the MoU.
Representatives from Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Departments were also present during the meeting, along with those from the Ministry of External Affairs were also present.