Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that $100 billion of foreign investments are waiting to enter Indian shores and it is now up to the states to compete for a larger pie of these investments by simplifying their business environment.
“(A total of) $100 billion investments from Japan, China and America have applied for visa. Now it is the turn of the states to capitalize on the opportunity,” Modi said at an investors conference in Bhopal, central India, Xinhua reported.
Ambassadors of 28 countries are attending the two-day investment summit which also has nine partner countries, while industry giants like Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani, Gautam Adani and Cyrus Mistry are also present.
The central government will stand shoulder to shoulder with all states, irrespective of the political affiliation of the ruling party, to facilitate investment and boost economic growth, he said.
He also asked foreign investors to look at the holistic hotbed of opportunities that India offers instead of treating it as just a large market where they can dump their goods and make profits.
Signaling that the big bang reforms investors expect the government to unleash, the prime minister said that they should focus only on the long-term challenges, without bringing some ground-level changes in the short run, which could lead to disenchantment and possibly scotch the implementation of the larger reform agenda.
Instead, he assured the participants that his administration is tackling both short- and long-term challenges with equal fervor.
“Times have changed. No country, let alone a state, can live on its own anymore... it has to find its place in the global perspective,” he said.
While Japan and China has promised to invest around $55 billion into India over the next few years, private US investors have indicated they are willing to invest close to $50 billion. “Please don’t treat India just like a market. The world was attracted to India because they thought it’s a market of 1.25 billion people, let’s dump stocks here, sell... and make profits,” the prime minister said.
Reflecting on the anticipation of speedier reforms, the prime minister said: “If we only focus on long-term projects, leaving short term (issues) aside, disenchantment would set in... It’s quite possible that the (anticipated) outcomes would also not materialize.”
Stressing that his government’s top priority is to create ‘maximum employment’, the PM said he wants to give an equal thrust to the manufacturing, agriculture and services sectors with an eye on job creation.
