Indian corporates can now go global: Vajpayee

Friday, 09 January 2004, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: In a move to facilitate Indian corporates to go global, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee Friday announced lifting of restrictions on investment in overseas ventures. "I am happy to announce that Indian corporates will hereafter be freely permitted to make overseas investments up to 100 percent of their net worth, whether through an overseas joint venture or a wholly owned subsidiary," Vajpayee said. "The current restrictions, including a ceiling of $100 million, are hereby being lifted," he added. The prime minister made the announcement at a three-day reunion of the Indian diaspora aimed at bringing the over 20 million-strong diaspora spread over 110 countries closer to the land of their forefathers. He said the government had also decided to permit, "indeed encourage," Indian corporates to go global in the agriculture sector. To facilitate this, the existing restrictions on Indian corporates to undertake agricultural activities abroad, whether directly or through an overseas branch, will be removed. "This will enable Indian companies to take advantage of global opportunities and also to acquire technological and other skills for adoption in India," he added. The decision to allow Indian companies to undertake agricultural activities abroad would particularly help countries with large populations of people of Indian origin, who were ferried there more than a century ago by the British colonialists as indentured labour to work in the sugar fields. Agriculture continues to be the main vocation of these people in countries like Fiji, Mauritius and the Caribbean islands.
Source: IANS
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