Visiting US commerce secretary (cabinet minister) Gary Locke on Friday downplayed the spate of scams being unearthed in India and said his country’s companies were excited to be here and optimistic about opportunities.
“Headlines that you read of some issues are not necessarily headlines of tomorrow. However, what the US companies are concerned about are of market access, limit on foreign direct investment, issues relating to intellectual property rights. However, they are aware that there has been so much of change in India and there has been a rising middle class. They want to make investments, export goods and services,” Locke said.
He was addressing reporters on the concluding day of his five-day visit and said he’d made his viewpoint clear. “During my interaction with Indian authorities, I have raised the concerns of US companies, especially curbs on investments in financial services, insurance and lack of FDI (foreign direct investment) in the retail sector. Further, they are concerned about limitations over investment in defence and the Coast Guard, especially when India plans to carry out comprehensive modernisation. Allowing FDI in retail will help India improve the supply chain, curb spoilage or damage to agricultural and horticultural crops.”
The secretary said US companies were also concerned about transparency and tendering processes in India.
He said the US had carried out export control reforms and the Obama administration had removed nine Indian space and military-related companies, including those from the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and the Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), from its export control ‘Entity List’. “This signifies new strategic partnership and paves way for more opportunities in trade and investments. We want mutually beneficial two-way trade and investments. The US is the most open economy. India must show reciprocity by making necessarily changes which will excourage more investments not only from US companies but other countries, too,” he opined.
