India Well Poised To Attract Investments That Move Out Of China: Piyush Goyal

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday said the country is well poised to attract investments that wish to move out of China. Speaking at the India Economic Conclave 2019, he said the tax reforms introduced by the government recently will ensure investments come back to India.

"I think India is well poised to attract investments that wish to move out of China. We had a dialogue with a large number of companies. The income tax changes, which were approved by Parliament last week, are an important element in our plan to attract investments to and not let them go to any Southeast Asian countries which earlier offered attractive tax regime," he said.

Goyal further said the government is also looking at pooling together land which state and central governments have got to offer to investors for setting up their businesses in India.

"I have got PSUs including railways to create land pools for making land available easier to investors. We are monitoring and tracking that investment comes to India," he said.

When he was asked about the progress of the bilateral trade talks between India and US, Goyal said, "As regards trade deals and the decisions, they are long drawn affairs. They are not something which close immediately. You have to go into trade detail. "You have to see its impact, its forward and backward linkages, its impact in the long run and short run, corresponding benefits we get from the trade deal and I assure you that we have made significant progress in the past few months."

He further said the government has almost been able to sort out various differences that prevail between the US and India. "We will be able to close this quickly. The bilateral trade continues to grow at great trajectory compared to last year so our trade is intact our relations are getting stronger by the day and the trade will help us move even further ahead," Goyal added. He further said that while the world is seeing a lot of challenges, India is well poised to grow.

"The way we are able to negotiate with the countries, given the way we are able to extract certain important outcomes from different countries for example, we are starting to review ASEAN FTA, we are already talking to South Korea to expedite the review of FTA, we are trying to see how we can get better market access than what was negotiated in 2010-11," Goyal said.

When asked about the concerns raised by various industries that are witnessing slowdown, Goyal assured that the government is open for consultations and already has players, including chief of Maruti Suzuki India, from the automobile industry to take their inputs on reviving growth. He said he is slated to meet representatives of the Tata Group and Mahindra Group in coming days.

"The finance minister today has started pre-Budget consultations. Now, we are in that period where most solutions and issues will be addressed through the Budget," Goyal said.