Piyush Goyal to visit Switzerland soon for $100-billion FDI pledge by EFTA
NEW DELHI : Commerce and Industry Minister Shri Piyush Goyal will visit Switzerland to take forward a $ 100 billion investment commitment for India made by the four-nation European Free Trade Association (EFTA) under a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
In the FTA that India signed in March with EFTA – which apart from Switzerland includes Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein – India secured the investment pledge from EFTA over next 15 years in return for tariff concessions to the members of the grouping.
These investments will come as foreign direct investment (FDI) and not portfolio investments that should generate 1 million direct jobs, Goyal said at the National Executive Committee meeting of FICCI. “I can withdraw concessions in the FTA if this commitment is not fulfilled.”
The fineprint of the FTA document shows that of the $ 100 billion investment, $ 50 billion will flow in the first 10 years and $ 50 billion in another five years.
“Excitement that I am finding in Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Iceland makes me believe that we can actually exceed that if we are more forthcoming about that. They will look for Indian partners and investors,” the minister said.
So far the members of the grouping have collectively invested $ 10.7 billion in India of which $ 9.96 billion has come from Switzerland alone. Bilateral trade between India and EFTA stood at $ 23.9 billion last financial year. India’s exports were up 0.8% to $ 1.9 billion wihl;e imports were $ 22 billion up 31.7%. The source of imports from EFTA was Switzerland at $ 21.2 billion last year.
On India-UK FTA the minister said that initial comments made by the UK government are very encouraging. The newly appointed UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds had met Goyal in February this year during his India visit when he was shadow trade minister. “The Labour government is deeply committed (to FTA) as is the Modi government,” the minister said.
Goyal said that India will be the world’s third largest economy in the next three to four years government is working to make Indian investment journey easy by working on reducing compliance burden and decriminalise the laws.
Last year The Jan Vishwas Act amended 42 existing Acts administered by 19 ministries. Within these Acts that deal with different areas of business, 183 provisions have been changed to decriminalise offences that are minor, procedural and technical in nature.
The government is working on another round of Jan Vishwas Bill but the progress is stuck because of lack of inputs from the industry and departments.
“I am struggling to prepare Jan Vishwas 2. I am not getting enough ideas either from industry or in my many ministerial consultations,” Goyal said. He said more needs to be done on decriminalisation of laws and the industry should come forward and give a balanced view on what is necessary and how it will not compromise on health and safety.
The ministry also asked the industry to source inputs for their products for manufacturing and services if they are available locally. “To become self-reliant we need to take care of others too.”
Further talking about the country’s exports, Goyal said that the target of taking the goods and services exports to USD 2 trillion by 2030 is “doable and achievable”.