FDI surges over US$ 25 billion
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Dr. Ashwani Kumar,
The Minister of State for Industry
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Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into India has surged to over $25 billion in 2007-08 and the country's Foreign Exchange Reserve crossed $341 billion as of today, Mr Ashwani Kumar, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry has said.
Addressing the two-day India Investors' Summit organised by Financial News in association with Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal, Mr Ashwani Kumar highlighted the initiatives of the UPA government in making growth more inclusive and the emphasis laid on education and health in the context of providing skills and better quality of life.
He said the next wave would be in the skill-based manufacturing sector. Nearly 500 delegates from business and industry registered for the event, which discussed the current social, financial and economic dynamics of doing business with India. Mr Ashwani Kumar gave a background to the reform process in India and the key drivers of India's growth.
To support his argument of the sustainability of GDP growth of over 8 per cent in the long run, he observed that India had the advantage of a huge young workforce (24 per cent of the population are below the age of 28 years, 54 per cent of the population are in the working group) and a very high savings and investment rate (over 35 per cent of GDP).
Domestic demand and investment are the key drivers of growth and therefore insulate the Indian economy to a large extent from the sub-prime crisis.Inflation, though a major concern, could be contained. The growth potential of services sector in India was enormous at $200 billion offering employment to 40 million people, he said.
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| Rent-A-Port eyes India for port, logistics projects |
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"We do not get involved in a port project unless we co- invest with the local entrepreneur. We are not consultants," Mr Gupta said talking about how different the company and its services are. "Unlike consultants, as co-investors we also share the financial risk and therefore are more responsible for the completion of the project and successful operation of the facilities in which we have a stake."
"We have combined both our strengths as financiers as well as project managements. The company acts as an antenna with infrastructure specialists (both technical and financial), who study the infrastructural investment opportunities in ports and industrial zones, inviting its shareholders to join as equity partners. It also enables developers to finance the port infrastructure while keeping it 'off balance sheet'.
Mr Gupta, who was the CMD of the Dredging Corporation of India, said his company is looking at a couple of projects in the country. Rent-A-Port expects to export large quantities of high grade limestone from its captive mines at Oman, later this year to India for steel making companies. It is a partner and operator in one of the biggest quarries in the Middle East with reserves in excess of 500 million tonnes. The company is understood to look at setting up dedicated berths for this activity in Indian coast.
The company has on going strategic partnerships with the Port of Antwerp, National Railway Company of Belgium and Sea-Tech, the engineering division of Sea-Invest, which is the biggest company in Europe in designing, handling and operating of bulk cargo systems and facilities. The company's shareholders are AVH (Ackermans & van Haaren) and CFE, who are the largest civil engineering group and construction services company specialized in real estate, mining, financial services, concessions, dredging etc.
Rent-A-Port has a wealth of in-house expertise in analysis, design, construction, development and management of port, logistic and marine infrastructures as well as free trade zones, Mr Gupta said. "We go with the local investor and co-invest with them. We use the local expertise while we bring in the external expertise along with funds," he said. "Our main focus is greenfield and brown field ports in all developing countries including India. We do the entire designing of the port, assist in tendering and also help promoters with supervision and operation of the project."
One of the shining examples of the company's forte is the successful operations at Vietnam where at the deep sea port of Dinh Vu it has developed a large port based SEZ. "We have designed, financed and supervised the project in 1999 and it is an extremely successful port SEZ facility today. As co-investor and management partner, the company developed a low lying land area of over 1,000 hectares into a modern industrial park and deep-sea port in Hai Phong, Northern Vietnam.
Though its main focus is greenfield and brown field ports, the company is principally not looking at projects in the major ports of the country. In fact, we have innovative solutions for shallow ports and have designed unique solutions for bulk and oil handling at various venues across the world."
Talking about port development, Mr Gupta said that the Vietnamese are very open, and has very friendly policies and they want the projects to happen. In contrast, in India, he said, "Our attitude needs to change. As a government, you should facilitate, not hinder projects which the country needs, the locality needs."
Source: The Economic Times |
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Investments in SEZ may touch US$ 68.22 billion
Investments in special economic zones (SEZs) across the country are likely to touch around Rs 2.84 lakh crore by December 2009. These SEZs are expected to create around 2.1 million additional jobs. Exports are likely to touch around Rs 1 lakh crore.
In his special address at the Nasscom-Elcot interactive session in Chennai on Friday B Vijayan, development commissioner, Madras Export Processing Zone-SEZ, said at the end of 2007-08 around Rs 71,000 crore was invested and around 311,000 employment opportunities were created across the country. Exports from SEZs increased 78.1 per cent to Rs 67,300 crore from Rs 37,787 crore compared with exports from MPEZ-SEZ, which increased 28.6 per cent to Rs 3,168.53 crore from Rs 2,462.40 crore.
Around 453 SEZs have formally been approved by the commerce ministry, of which 282 are IT/ITeS/electronic hardware. He added that of the total approved SEZs, the southern region accounted for 44 per cent, west 31 per cent, north 19 per cent and east the remaining six per cent. In the south, 182 SEZs have formally been approved of which 59 are in Tamil Nadu. In Tamil Nadu as on March 31, around Rs 5,440.09 crore was invested in SEZs and 52,177 direct employment opportunities were created.
Source : Business Standard |
Japan to invest over US$ 2.04 billion in infrastructure projects in India
Japan has committed Rs 8,582 crore as assistance to develop nine infrastructure projects in India. The assistance will help in undertaking projects such as the Kolkata metro, Hogennakal water supply project and Tamil Nadu urban infrastructure project, an official release said. The second phase of the Delhi metro project will also be funded by Japan. This is the highest-ever official development assistance by the Japanese government to India. Negotiations on infrastructure projects like dedicated freight corridor, Chennai metro and Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor have already been initiated between the two governments. Both the governments are also negotiating to set up an IIT in India. The two have also agreed to have a bilateral currency swap agreement to meet any short-term liquidity crisis, which marks a major step in strengthening their bilateral economic relation. India and Japan have also set up forums like the High Level Policy Dialogue on Economic Development and the India-Japan Strategic Dialogue on Economic Issues that will hold discussions annually, the statement added. The other projects covered by the latest aid include Hyderabad outer ring road project, Haryana transmission system project and UP forestry and poverty alleviation project.
Source :
The Economic Times |
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