India striving for business growth
Thursday, 09 December 2004, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: India is striving to remove bureaucratic hurdles to business growth and usher in a single-window clearance regime to facilitate foreign investment, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Jagdish Tytler said here Thursday. Addressing an India-Pakistan Business Meet organised by the PHD Chambers of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) with participation from several Pakistani industry lobbies, Tytler assured India was keen on not only removing impediments to bilateral trade but also facilitate overseas investments and joint ventures. Due to the "inspector raj" (permits and licence system involving bureaucracy), he said, "We have created such an atmosphere that they (foreign investors including overseas Indians) are put off." "We are now trying to remove bureaucratic hurdles and have created a single window clearance facility in my ministry for non-resident Indians. We are receiving several proposals for investment and have already cleared a proposal worth $2.7 billion for a city within a city in Bangalore," said Tytler. On the continuing visa and other trade-related problems Pakistani businessmen faced, the minister assured he would personally take up the matter with Minister of External Affairs K. Natwar Singh. "Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been trying his best to improve the relationship between the two countries and provide impetus to economic relations," he said. Expressing a desire to be part of a business delegation to Pakistan where he was born, Tytler said, "If visa restrictions are removed and borders are opened up, the bilateral trade between the two countries would shoot up." Citing Singapore's example that had benefited with the construction of world-class roads, Tytler hoped better highway link between India and Pakistan from New Delhi to Islamabad would lead to an explosion in bilateral trade. Focusing on impediments to bilateral trade, Jamil Mehboob Magoon, vice president of the SAARC (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation) Chambers of Commerce and Industry, highlighted the problems in getting visa, high Indian taxation and restriction on flow of goods across the land border. Magoon, former vice president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said several business delegates, who were to participate in the one-day meet to focus on impediments and areas of prospective cooperation, were unable to come due to visa problems. "Visa is still a big problem. Further, several products which can come from straight across the land border in Punjab faced restrictions, making them unviable via sea route," he said.
Source: IANS
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