Economy has $500bn investment potential: Nath

India has investment opportunities of around $500 billion in the next five years. Of this, the infrastructure sector alone presents opportunities worth $250 billion, commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath today said.

"The Investment Commission of India estimates investment opportunities of $130 billion in manufacturing in the next five years alone. We expect foreign investors to be major players in this segment," Nath said at the closing session of the India-Japan Business Summit in Tokyo.

The minister invited Japanese enterprises to invest in Indian special economic zones (SEZs). "Though, today there are only 15 SEZ's functional, we expect the number to increase to 150 in the next one to two years in view of the unprecedented policy incentives provided in the scheme," he said.

Opportunities in areas like auto-components and automobiles, drugs and pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, chemicals and petrochemicals, agro and food processing and fashion and textiles, which are registering double-digit growth, are especially noteworthy, Nath said.