Showcasing India’s manufacturing potential to the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi left no stone unturned at the India-Singapore economic convention on November 24 to attract potential investors to India.
Making a strong case for India, Mr Modi presented a report card of the initiatives and reforms undertaken by his government in the last 18 months. He also spoke about the potential of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the mega trade deal between ASEAN and its dialogue partners.
Speaking about the India-Singapore relations, Mr Modi emphasised that Singapore is India’s 10th largest trade partner globally, the second largest in ASEAN, and also pointed out that outward FDI from India to Singapore has also gone up. Addressing the potential investors at the economic convention, Mr Modi focused on India’s potential as a manufacturing hub. “With the Make in India initiative, we are working on all fronts to become a global manufacturing hub,” Mr Modi said. He underlined that the interest of foreign investors in India has gone up tremendously, but also said there were a number of regulatory and taxation issues which were adversely impacting on their sentiments. He reassured the investors, saying his government has taken very decisive steps to remove many of long the pending concerns.
“The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), comprising ASEAN and its six Dialogue Partners, is another potential opportunity for our companies,” Mr Modi said. The RCEP has been under negotiations for a while and is expected to reach a final conclusion in 2016.
Citing a major reform in India where the marginalized would be benefited, Mr Modi spoke about the opening of 190 million new bank accounts. Through them, we are trying to ensure direct transfer of benefits to the poor and said this targeting is also bringing discipline in Government expenditure.
Mr Modi also spoke about huge potential for creation of infrastructure and production of goods will not be available in any other country. “More importantly, no one place on the earth can offer the customer base on such a massive scale,” Mr Modi added.
“We need to provide a huge push to manufacturing which has stagnated at around 16% of the GDP for several decades. This share must reach around 25% in the short and medium term. With this in view, we have launched the “Make in India” initiative,” he said. “We are working on all fronts to make India a global manufacturing hub. We are creating the global skill pool to establish a modern economy with a world class manufacturing sector.” India has entered into agreements with the US, Israel and Russia to bolster defence manufacturing in India under the ‘Make in India’ initiative’.
Emphasising on the importance of climate change ahead of the Conference of Parties (COP-21) summit in Paris, Mr Modi reassured investors about India’s commitment to combat climate change. “Our commitment to mitigate the dangers of climate change do not arise from Economics or Politics. They also do not arise from Fear or Favour. They arise from our fundamental belief that nature is our Mother. Nature provides and sustains our life; hence we must nurture it. It is an article of faith. I assure the Global community that we will do more than required. We will stretch ourselves to do more than what we can normally do,” Mr Modi said.
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