US envoy makes FDI pitch in Didi’s backyard

“Your infrastructure is in bad shape,and so are several other sectors. Your government (Trinamool Congress government in Bengal) must work hard to facilitate FDI or you will suffer,” Kallol Dutta,the president of Bengal Chamber of Commerce,quoted Powell as saying. The US envoy was speaking to members of various business chambers in Kolkata.

She had raised the issue with Mamata during Monday’s hour-long meeting and urged her to review her stand on FDI,said businessmen.

During her address at the business seminar titled — Strength to Strength: Building the US-India Economic Relationship for the Next Century — Powell said: “It’s time to put to rest those outdated notions that India suffers from economic openness or that India suffers from foreign investment. Even the strongest-held ideology withers in the face of plain facts. The growth that has happened in India over the past two decades was made possible by economic openness. The growth that has happened in India was enhanced by foreign investment.’’

She linked foreign investment to lifting the standards of living of the people. “Since the ultimate goal is to raise standards of living and eradicate poverty,opening up of the economy and bringing in more foreign investment take on a new urgency. India loses because US companies do not get a chance to compete; because India does not receive the much-needed capital to grow,and because the best products,technology and prices that the world has to offer remain out of reach.”

She said with the Indian banks not capable to fund huge infrastructure projects,foreign capital should be allowed in the sector. “Allowing foreign investment will usher in global long-term investments that India so desperately needs.”

She also pushed for opening up of the insurance sector more,where the current FDI cap is 26 per cent. The UPA government has listed raising the FDI cap to 49 per cent as its top priority.

‘Siliguri,not Mumbai,now determines India story’

US ambassador to India Nancy Powell on Tuesday said that India’s growth centres have moved away from Delhi,Mumbai and Bangalore to small cities and towns of the country. “It is increasingly apparent that what actually happens in India happens outside Delhi or Mumbai. The deeper economic,political and social movements — the ones that actually determine where this continental nation is heading to — are taking place in Raipur,Ranchi,Patna,Durgapur,Siliguri and Kolkata,’’ she said.

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