The Government will continue its endeavour to liberalise the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy in the coming weeks, the Commerce & Industry Minister, Anand Sharma, said here on Wednesday.
Expressing optimism for the economy in the New Year, Sharma said this was primarily due to “bold decisions of the UPA government for liberalising the FDI policy in key sectors, such as civil aviation, retail and telecom…”
Sharma said the coming months would see a greater push for development of industrial corridors across the country and work will commence for establishment of the first few cities along the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor.
“I expect that with greater foreign investment and technology collaborations, Indian manufacturing will also move up the value chain and acquire greater competitiveness globally”, he added in a statement.
Sharma was also optimistic about the export scenario. “In spite of weak demand in traditional markets, exports have done reasonably well and in the first eight months of the current financial year, exports touched $204 billion, registering a growth of over 6 per cent over the same period last year,” he said, adding that it was reassuring that the trade deficit had come down to $ 99.9 billion during this period.