 "Arun Jaitley")
Inviting foreign capital in sectors like roads, railways and energy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday met sovereign wealth funds from Singapore and the UAE and pitched a stable policy regime and resilience of Indian economy amid a global slowdown.
Opening the two-day India Investment Summit 2016 here, the minister highlighted opportunities the country presents to investors and sought investment in sectors like road, highways, oil and gas, urban infrastructure and railways.
He also held closed-door discussions with several potential investors including European investment banks .
“One of the greatest challenges before India was to re-establish the credibility of Indian markets and to establish credibility of Indian economy it was important that we not only reform but continue reform only in one direction,” he said in his inaugural address.
Also, decision making has been expedited and conditions that made investment process difficult, sliced away, he said.
He said, India during the last 19 months of the Bharatiya Janata Party government has “opened gates for investment”.
The government, he said, has ensured that “decision making becomes faster, policy changes and improvements including structural reforms, which are to take place, the pace of those reforms is consistent and direction is one way itself.”
“We have eased out processes. And several conditionalities which made investment process more difficult, those conditionalities have also been sliced away,” he said. “We have been actively working on ease of doing business.”
Showcasing investment opportunities India offers, Jaitley said with one-sixth of the world population and largest the largest middle class, there are huge opportunities.
Jaitley also hoped that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill as well as a the bankruptcy law are passed in the Budget session of Parliament.
“We worked full time to draft a very effective bankruptcy and insolvency law which was introduced in Parliament in the last session. A joint committee is working overtime almost on day-to-day basis endeavouring to produce a report by the first week of March, which will enable us for approval and passage in the coming session,” he said.
“When people start noticing an economy, when people start investing in an economy, and that happens when the credibility of that economy is established.
“Credibility is established by stability of policies, by consistent action in allowing it to grow and I think in the midst of this otherwise global slowdown, it is a great opportunity that India has which we are fully trying to realise,” he added.
The Finance Minister said that India is definitely on the move.
“Whenever there was a global economic turmoil in the past, India has always showed resilience,” he said, adding, India has withstood successfully even during the period of 2008-09, financial crisis in the world.
It will be a win-win situation for both India and those who are investing in India, he said.
“We want that both domestic and international resources are optimally used for development of the whole country,” he added.
