India will make a case for better investment opportunities and proposed setting up of infrastructure debt funds, while calling the US to reverse the steep hike in visa fee for professionals. The issues will be raised during Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to the US starting Wednesday. Commerce Minister Anand Sharma has already reached the US.
The US, on the other hand, is likely to raise the issue of hiking the foreign direct investment cap from 26 per cent to 49 per cent in India. The bill is pending with the standing committee on finance. Mukherjee will also discuss global economy, recovery, growth and development in the meetings of the G-20 and G-24 ministers, besides International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
Officials said Mukherjee will inform US officials and business leaders about the infrastructure debt fund guidelines, which are likely to be introduced soon. India has set a target to invest $1 trillion in infrastructure in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-13 to 2016-17) — double the amount from little less than $500 billion in the 11th Plan.
He will reach New York to deliver a key note address on ‘India’s Continuing Growth Story’ at the 8th Annual India Investment Forum meeting. He will then address the US-India Business Council-Ficci round table meeting in New York. The meeting will be attended by Terry Mcgraw, Chairman, USIBC; Harsh Mariwala, President, Ficci, and 20 CEOs of US companies and 20 from India.
Thereafter, the finance minister will leave for Washington to address the India-US CEOs’ Forum meeting. The forum was constituted in 2005 as part of the India-US Economic Dialogue and comprises 12 CEOs each from India and the US. Business and industry representatives of both countries coordinate the activities of the forum and its recommendations help improve business environment between the two countries.
The Indian CEOs are led by Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata, and includes Mukesh Ambani (Reliance Industries), Hari Bhartia (Jubilant Life Sciences), Pratip Chaudhury (State Bank of India), Chanda Kochhar (ICICI Bank), Sunil Bharti Mittal (Bharti Enterprises), Deepak Parekh (HDFC Ltd), Preetha Reddy (Apollo Hospitals) and Analjit Singh (Max India).
The CEOs likely to participate from the US side include Dave Cote (Honeywell), Jamie Dimon (JPMorgan Chase), Paul Hanrahan (AES Corporation), Ellen Kullman (DuPont), Harold Terry McGraw (Mcgraw Hill), Indra Nooyi (PepsiCo), Vikram Pandit (Citigroup), and Michael Splinter (Applied Materials). Besides, Sharma will meet US trade representative Ron Kirk to discuss the steep hike in professional visa fee that has been hurting the Indian IT sector.
In Washington, Mukherjee will also attend the 86th meeting of G-24 ministers to discuss the issues regarding recovery, growth and development — something that is extremely relevant given the current global economic environment.
It will also discuss the strategy and action plan for enhancing the effectiveness of the G-24 Group. Pravin J Gordhan, the Finance Minister of South Africa, will hand over the Presidency of the G-24 to Mukherjee. India will chair the G-24 Ministers after a gap of almost three decades.
On September 22, Mukherjee will attend the BRICS Finance Ministers’ meeting which has been convened by India on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank and G-20 meetings in order to explore the manner in which this group comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa could coordinate in addressing evolving economic and financial situations across the world. The primary objective of the meeting will be to discuss the concerns regarding the current situation of the global economy and the policy response by BRICS member countries, the finance ministry said in a statement.
In the evening, Mukherjee will attend a working dinner meeting of G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors to discuss global economy and its framework.
On September 23, the finance minister will attend the Annual Meeting of IMF and World Bank. In the evening, there will be a meeting of G-20 Finance Ministers and Development Ministers. There will be two sessions. First session will be focussing on the development agenda, including infrastructure and food security. The second session will be focussing on development financing.
On September 24, the Finance Minister will attend the International Monetary and Finance Committee (IMFC) breakfast meeting. In the afternoon, the World Bank Development Committee Meetings will be held where the focus will be on the current economic scenario, growth and jobs as well as on global development issues and the implications of the 2012 World Development Report on Gender on the Bank’s activities.
Before leaving for India on September 25, Mukherjee will also have bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan and with his counterparts from the UK, France, Greece, Iran and Japan.
