Overall Trend Of India’s Trade With Kuwait Has Been Positive: Montek Young Kuwaitis Invited To Visit India An Indian delegation led by Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, India, is on a two-day visit to Kuwait to promote India-Kuwait economic relations, particularly in the field of investments. The delegation includes Arvind Mayaram, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, government of India. Addressing the press at the Sheraton Hotel — which was also attended by the Indian Ambassador to Kuwait, Satish C. Mehta; Vinod Kumar, First Secretary Press and Information and Second Secretary, Commerce Hoti Lal — Ahluwalia spoke briefly about the historical bilateral ties between Kuwait and India not only in the field of commerce but at all levels. He went on to say India is opening up and growing rapidly and the government of India has introduced new steps to welcome sovereign wealth funds to make it easy for all investors. He disclosed on offer are 100 build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects with a lifeline of 30 years. The projects include infrastructure, fertilizers, metro, roads network, etc, are risk free and ‘guaranteed’ returns of between 13 and 14 percent. Domestic He disclosed, the government is planning to disinvest shares worth about $8 billion to the private sector and this money too can be utilized for other projects thus giving boost to growth and development.The projects will be financed through loans by Indian financial institutions and banks payable within 5 to 7 years. He disclosed, although the Indian GDP (gross domestic product) has fluctuated from time to time since the so-called economic meltdown of recent times, India has stood the test of time.India’s GDP grew at about 4.9 percent in the fourth quarter of FY13, a marginal improvement over the Q3 GDP growth rate of 4.7 percent. The GDP for the entire FY13 grew at 5 percent, which is a decade low number but is expected to grow to 5.7 percent to bring some stability, he disclosed.He said the bilateral trade between India and Kuwait for fiscal year ended June 30, 2012 stood at $17.56 billion dollars while Kuwait’s total investments to date in India are approximately $2.5 billion.Historically, Indo-Kuwaiti relations have always had an important trade dimension. The overall trend of India’s trade with Kuwait has been positive and has consistently been among the top ten trading partners of Kuwait.During his visit Ahluwalia has also met with Kuwait’s Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance Mustafa Al-Shamali and Minister of Amiri Diwan Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmed to discuss issues of mutual interest to both countries.He called on more Kuwaitis to invest in India since Kuwait is one of the MVN (most favored nations).He also called on the young Kuwaitis to visit India to see what India has to offer in all fields — education, tourism and particularly medical tourism, etc — in addition to business opportunities.Mayaram is a key official involved in investments and economic decision-making. He heads India’s Foreign Investment Promotion Board, India’s direct investments abroad, commercial borrowings, etc.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 05:20:59 +0000
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