— Ramesh Sharma

Mr Ajay Shankar, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, flanked by Mr Rutger Koopmans, Chairman, Netherlands-India Chamber, and Dr Amit Mitra, Secretary General, FICCI, at the curtain raiser on the Netherlands-India business meet, in the Capital on Monday.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Aug 25

India would be able to attract the same proportion of foreign direct investment in the second half of the current calendar year as it recorded in the first half.

“We have seen an FDI inflow of $20 billion in the first six months of this calendar year and we expect the inflow to top $40 billion mark during the 12-month period,” Mr Ajay Shankar, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), said at a seminar on Indo-Netherlands business meet, organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Mr Shankar said the reason for the strong growth in FDI was due to the high degree of competitiveness in manufacturing and quality shown by Indian firms and the domestic subsidiaries of foreign companies in the past four-five years.

FICCI estimates that the Netherlands holds a slot among India’s top ten trading partners, ranking the fourth in terms of FDI flowing in the country.

“The second largest Indian diaspora is in the Netherlands and several Dutch MNCs such as Phillips, Shell and Unilever becoming household names in India. “The business meet will hopes to take the Indo-Dutch relations to a higher trajectory,” said Dr Amit Mitra, Secretary General, FICCI.

The key sectors identified for collaboration between the two countries during the business meet to be held in November at Amsterdam include IT, agro-industry, logistics, infrastructure, water management, life sciences and health, automotive and design industry.

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