Summit a testimony to investor faith: Jaitley

Union minister for commerce and industry Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said the investment proposals worth Rs 55,000 crore received by the Gujarat government during the three days of the Global Investors' Summit showed that investors have faith and confidence in the state.

"I will call it (getting the investment proposals) a great achievement for Gujarat and the nation as the last two years were not good for investments across the world. The global foreign direct investment dipped significantly during this period," the minister said at the valedictory function of the summit.

"Investors consider two important factors before putting in their money in a project: safety of the investment and the returns," he said.

He said, "Like China, Gujarat's economy is also based on manufacturing." "Gujarat has a stable and liberal policy, a large domestic market, the best manpower and is in the process of creating world-class infrastructure," he said.

About the country's economy, Jaitley said, "for the first time in the last three years, our economy is going through a good time. Six per cent growth rate is very modest. In terms of GDP and purchasing power parity, India is the fourth in the world. In terms of growth rate, India is the second."

"The service sector constitutes 52 per cent of the Indian economy and our professionals have made an impact in the information technology (IT) sector. We provide services at the cheapest rates, making India a hub for outsourcing," he said.

He said "200 research and development units of the top 500 companies are in India because of the cheap and quality manpower available here. Even in the healthcare segment, quality treatment is provided at one fifth of the cost in the US and European countries," Jaitley said.