FDI approvals touch 60 bn

With the liberalised FDI regime, Abdullah said India was an attractive long-term investment destination possessing all necessary characteristics of a democracy with huge market.

While economic reforms in India had led to enhanced FDI flows, Abdullah said there was a feeling that much more needed to be done and hence the Vajpayee Government had embarked upon the next phase of reforms.

quot;These would inter alia seek to adress isues relating to privatisation, greater debureaucratisation and the need to downsize the government,quot; he said adding financial sector reforms would also be an important component of this process.

On multilateral trade issues, Abdullah said India was for quot;orderly, transparent and non-discriminatory trade policies and multilateral just and fair dispute settlement mechanism.quot;

The continuous efforts by the Government to build up a democratic consensus in patent legislations was quot;proof of our abiding faith in the multilateral system,quot; he said.

He emphasised that the in-built agenda of the WTO was fairly large and adequate and it need not be burdened further. The non-trade issues need to be kept out of the agenda in the interest of fair and non-discriminatory trade.

Highlighting India8217;s concerns, Abdullah said that a whole range of barriers from sanitary and phytosanitary measures to packaging requirements, from anti-dumping measures to quotas are effectively thwarting market access to products of developing countries including India.