Pranab to address U.S.-India economic summit

Monday, 27 June 2011, 18:53 IST
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New Delhi: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will address senior officials of the U.S. government and top Indian and American businesses at an economic summit in Washington, jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and U.S.-based policy think tank Brookings Institution. The conference on U.S.-India economic and financial partnership will also be addressed by U.S. Secretary of Treasury Timothy F. Geithner. The summit will focus on economic developments in both the countries with a view to eliciting synchronized policy actions, said a statement from CII. "Infrastructure financing needs in both countries are to be a key component of the dialogue with particular emphasis on public-private partnerships and private sector engagement in financing," said CII. The day-long conference would include sessions on India's economic potential, Indian financial markets, and availability of finance for infrastructure development in the South Asian economic giant. India-U.S. trade touched $48 billion in 2010-11. Other than Mukherjee, the Indian government would be represented by Meera Shankar, Indian Ambassador to the U.S., U.K. Sinha, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, R. Gopalan, Secretary for Economic Affairs, Kaushik Basu, chief economic adviser to the Finance Ministry, and Subir Gokarn, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India. From the U.S. side, senior officials of the Treasury department, including Lael Brainard, under secretary for International Affairs, Charles Collyns, assistant secretary for International Finance, and Barry Gray, senior adviser in the office of technical assistance, will address the conference. "The CII conference would advance the role of the private sector in U.S.-India bilateral economic partnership," said Chandrajit Banerjee, CII director general. "Indian companies support some 300,000 jobs in the USA. CII believes that there is much untapped potential in bilateral trade and investment, given macroeconomic scenarios of both economies," Banerjee added. The CII delegation would be led by S. Gopalakrishnan, vice president of CII and chief executive of Infosys.
Source: IANS
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