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US Investment Summit
‘The Dynamic South’ |
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| Chennai played host on January 20 and 21,
1999 to the US Investment Summit under the auspices of the Indo-US
Joint Business Council led by its Chairman N Sankar, Chairman,
Sanmar group and its Co-Chairman Shashi Ruia, Chairman, Essar
Group. The summit held at Hotel Park Sheraton and Towers served
to highlight for the benefit of the American investor community
the impressive array of Indian policy initiatives calculated
to stimulate foreign contribution to India’s accelerated
growth in diverse areas including information technology, insurance,
patents, power, telecommunications and transportation. |
| Co-operation and competition amongst the four
southern states and the Union Territory of Pondicherry in wooing
business and investments from the US were much in evidence during
the summit. The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister M Chandrababu
Naidu’s call for a common economic agenda of these states
and his promise to take the initiative to bring the regional
players together to achieve this end gave substance to the proceedings.
The US delegates made a concerted plea for the opening up of
the services sector. US Ambassador Richard F Celeste urged India
to build a better track record in keeping commitments to encourage
greater investments from US companies in India. The Chief Minister
of Tamil Nadu, M Karunanidhi stressed the capability of South
India to become an IT superpower. He and other speakers highlighted
the availability of trained manpower in the southern states. |
| A joint statement issued by N Sankar and Dean
R O’Hare, Chairman of the US-India Business Council said
that after the presentation made by the leaders of the five
southern states, that US investors had come to some positive
conclusions. “India is emerging as a global economic power
in the leading growth sectors of the 21st century,” they
agreed. The communique called for the major infrastructure bottlenecks
in India to be addressed promptly, “if India’s vast
potential is to be unleashed and the flow of investment accelerated.”
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