Lack of decision making dented investor confidence in India: Arun Jaitley
This is perhaps the first time that India’s Prime Minister has attended the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in its last six editionsReferring to the shortcomings of the UPA government, Arun Jaitley, Minister of Finance, Government of India, has called for an introspection of what went wrong in the past regime that led to a slowdown in investments into India. Speaking at the “Invest in India summit 2015” in Gandhinagar yesterday, Jaitley said, “At a time when we all have gathered here to discuss how to ensure finance for the future growth, introspection of why investors stopped investing in India can be of great help.” According to a Finance Ministry report released last month, stalled projects in India are up to the tune of Rs.18 lakh crore (about 13% of GDP) of which an estimated 60% are in infrastructure. Jaitley pointed out that delay in decision making and aggressive tax regime were some of the factors that restricted the flow in the last few years, and added that the present government is already making amends. “But now, with some policy initiatives like FDI in sectors such as insurance & defence, the Central Government is trying hard to regain the confidence of the foreign investors. We are committed to ensure ease of doing business. Further, core focus on rural segment, infrastructure and smart cities is also expected to give a fillip to the investment,” he said.
Source - Ministry of Finance, IndiaThe summit was organised by Union Ministry of Finance & Finance Department, Government of Gujarat in association with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT). Twelve MoUs were signed during the summit in the presence of Jaitley and Anandiben Patel, Chief Minister, Gujarat. Meanwhile, Anandiben Patel partly attributed the success of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2015 to the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Anandiben Patel said that a record 21,000 MoUs were signed on the first two days of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit, and total investments pledged during the event is estimated at over Rs.25 lakh crore. Patel further said that 1,225 strategic partnerships were signed during the biennial summit. Over 25,000 delegates from 110 countries, including over 2,500 foreign delegates from 56 international delegations participated in this year’s Vibrant Gujarat Summit.
This article was published on January 13, 2015.
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