Indian economy well-poised to take off, says Piyush Goyal at Davos

On RCEP, Goyal said it was an 'unbalanced trade agreement, which was really not fulfilling the guiding principles on which RCEP started about 8 years ago, therefore India chose not to participate'

Asserting that the Indian economy is well-poised to take off, Union minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said there is a lot of enthusiasm for making investments in the country.

Speaking at a session at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual summit in Davos, the Commerce and Industry Minister also said the government will hold discussions with Britain and European Union on free trade agreements.

Britain is set to leave the European Union by end of January.

"... things have once again started showing an uptrend... economy is well poised to take off from here," Goyal said.

According to him, the enthusiasm to make investments in India is infectious.

At least four or five companies have said that more than 50 per cent of their total workforce would operate out of India in the coming years. Some of them are big names, he noted.

On RCEP, Goyal said it was an "unbalanced trade agreement, which was really not fulfilling the guiding principles on which RCEP started about eight years ago, therefore India chose not to participate in it".

Out of the RCEP countries India already has bilateral trade agreements with ASEAN 10 with Japan and Korea, we are close to concluding negotiations with Australia which we have restarted now and in the next 6 to 8 months we are can close a bilateral trade partnership with Australia, he said.

"RCEP was effectively becoming a free trade agreement between China and India. I don't think India is ready to engage unless we see open government, better transparency, regulatory practices being followed, and a greater market access for Indian goods and services on a reciprocal basis," he said.