Manmohan Singh seeks aggressive British investment
Tuesday, 10 October 2006, 19:30 IST
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London: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in remarks published here Tuesday that he was looking for "more vigorous, more dynamic, more aggressive interest in investing in India". In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, the visiting prime minister said India's need for investments were enormous. "We are growing at the rate of about eight percent per annum. Our ambition is to ensure that our economy grows at the rate of about 10 percent per annum, and that means that we will need to invest about 32-34 percent of our GDP. "We are currently investing about 30 percent. So we need to increate the investment rate by about two percent of our GDP," he said. Manmohan Singh told the newspaper that in infrastructure alone it was estimated that India needed an investment of about $150 billion in the next seven to eight years. "Therefore, there is enormous scope for cooperation between the investment communities of United Kingdom and our economy," he said. "Today, all sectors of our economy are open for foreign investment and with Britain we have had an historic relationship. English is the common language. We have the same legal system. There is an enormous opportunity which has not been tapped so far." Manmohan Singh highlighted some of India's priorities. "Our effort is to ensure that India has a world-class infrastructure. That includes ports, airports, roads, transport services; that includes a lot of more investment in the power sector and other related energy systems. These are our highest priorities. "We also want our financial services system to be liberalised and expanded. All these are areas in which I believe that the United Kingdom has distinct capabilities which can be harnessed to our mutual advantage." Manmohan Singh, who arrived here Monday on a three-day visit, is to take part in an India-United Kingdom Investment Summit here Tuesday.
Source: IANS
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