India Economic Summit to witness high-profile political crowd this time

Regarding the presence of many leading ministers of the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Cabinet, WEF’s director for India and South Asia, Colette Mathur said, ‘‘We are delighted to have all the important ministers and large scale government representation this time since it is a networking occasion.’’ Besides, ministerial participation, government is also providing whole hearted support to the event through Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) for the first time.

Mathur said, ‘‘With economy showing good signs of growth, India is on companies’ agenda now, which translates into impressive change for us.’’

She said, ‘‘Compared to the previous years, this one is easier. In the past, we were getting 3-4 multinationals with great difficulty but 15 multinational companies are participating this year.’’ They want to be seen and get involved, which is a very good signal, she added.

As a run-up to the summit, WEF has also conducted a survey among 50 Indian and foreign delegates. The results indicate that though India’s competitiveness has increased over the last two years, doubts still remained regarding the economy growing over 7 per cent and India overcoming its power crisis in the next five years.

Apart from the participation of 15 CEOs of multinational corporations, the summit would be addressed by foreign delegates like mayor of Chicago Richard M. Daley, congressman from New Jersey Frank Pallone, US under-secretary of commerce Kenneth Juster, Asean secretary general Ong Keng-Yong, Iranian Deputy Minister of foreign affairs S.M.H. Adeli, Sri Lanka commerce minister R. Karunanayake and others.