Highlighting India's stature as an attractive and preferred destination for investments, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday invited South Korean entrepreneurs to invest in the sectors like defence and retail.
Addressing the fourth edition of the India-Korea Business Partnership Forum here, Goyal said, "Many Korean companies have leveraged the opportunities that India has to offer to 'Make in India' for the world using the competitive and comparative advantages of skilled manpower, low-cost manufacturing and the government support that is provided for businesses in India. We have today become an attractive and preferred destination for investments."
The union minister invited South Korean entrepreneurs to invest in new sectors like defence and retail. "We need to complement our complementary strengths in automobiles, textiles, food processing, leather products, metals, mining, chemicals and also through some of our traditional sectors like steel and look at new emerging opportunities in defence, e-Commerce and retail."
He said during the Covid-19 pandemic India has demonstrated its resilience and capabilities in terms of being a trusted partner for businesses around the world.
"We are widely recognised today as the pharmacy of the world providing medicines and vaccines across continents. We plan to manufacture 5 billion vaccines next year and ensure the safety and security of people across the world post-vaccination," he emphasised.
Goyal said India's economy is on the path of recovery and will possibly see one of the fastest growth rates across the world.
The union minister said the government has taken several policy measures to support Industry and Services. He said, "We have a very vibrant Production Linked Incentive programme in which many Korean companies have also participated. We have a National Single Window launched recently, a National Infrastructure Pipeline with projects worth over a trillion dollars providing opportunities for Infrastructure companies."
"We have reduced corporation taxes to amongst the lowest in the world giving additional incentives to new investments, liberalized our foreign investment regime and many other measures to support the growth of the Indian economy. In the last four or five years, India is home to about 70 Unicorns, nearly half of them only in the last year of the Covid pandemic," added Goyal.
Meanwhile, Han-Koo Yeo, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), South Korea said that India and Korea should work on expanding bilateral cooperation with a view to strengthening the resilience of the manufacturing supply chain across these two countries. He said the two countries can benefit from many opportunities for a win-win situation to this effect. Speaking at the occasion, Chang Jae-bok, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to India said that as the global supply chains were shifting after the pandemic, Korean companies were looking at India as an attractive manufacturing base. He further said that for the last couple of decades, Korean companies were diversifying their investment decisions further to India, as the latter had emerged as the next economic frontier exponential.Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in his welcome address stressed the need for greater engagement between business communities from both countries. He highlighted the potential for enhanced cooperation in the manufacturing sector, especially automotive, food processing sector, and electronics apart from Biotechnology and Research and Development.
The CII report on "India Korea Business Cooperation: Sourcing from India, Investing in India" was also released during the inaugural session of the Forum. The report outlines the details of India's economic structure as well as recent reforms. Through an innovative economic tool, it identifies top products manufactured in India that can be best sourced by the Korean industry.
( With inputs from ANI )
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