A TOP INDIAN official urged US companies yesterday to jump on board India’s rapid growth and help it expand its manufacturing base.
“I would like American businesses and Indian industry to come together to make India a manufacturing hub and one of the workshops of the world,” Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Sharma Anand said in Washington in a speech to a business group.
Toward that end, India is issuing a new foreign investment policy document on March 31 and a new manufacturing policy document “before the fall,” he said.
Sharma’s speech came one day after he and US Trade Representative Ron Kirk signed a framework agreement aimed at boosting bilateral trade and investment flows.
The pitch also comes when high US employment and competitive pressures from China already have many US lawmakers worried about America’s manufacturing base.
The outsourcing of call-center and other service sector jobs to India has also raised concerns.
President Barack Obama, who hosted Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh at the White House in November, is expected to visit India in summer or early fall, Indian Ambassador to the US Meera Shankar told the business group.
US exports to India have grown rapidly in recent years and remained relatively strong last year, even as the global economic crisis took a toll on world trade.
The US exported about $16.5bn (£11bn) worth of goods to India in 2009, down about 7 per cent from 2008, compared with a 15 per cent drop in total exports.
US imports from India plunged 17.5 per cent last year to about $21.2bn (£14bn), but that was less than the 23.3 per cent overall drop in imports last year.
Still, the $37.7bn (£24.8bn) in trade between the US and India last year was roughly 1/10th of the trade between the US and China.
Also, US business investment in India totaled only about $13.6bn (£8.95bn) through 2007, compared with $28.3bn (£18.6bn) in China and $101.6bn (£67bn) in Japan.
India is creating national investment and manufacturing zones to attract more foreign interest, he said.
The first will be in Rajasthan, alongside the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor, he said.
“We want these manufacturing zones to be incubators of new innovations and new technologies,” Sharma said.
