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A very warm welcome to all of you and my thanks in particular to the Finance Secretary and my other senior colleagues and participants from India for joining us today for this very important conference. We had planned this several months ago and I am particularly grateful to the City of London, the Lord Mayor and his colleagues for helping us to put this together. This Conference was intended as part of our ongoing celebrations to mark 60 years of the Indian Republic. It is also a timely follow up on the decisions taken during Prime Minister Cameron’s State visit to India in July this year.
India’s needs in the infrastructure sector are not only well documented but are well understood by all of you present in this room. India has been growing at over 6% during the last 30 years and in recent years this average has touched 9%. The intention is for us to grow at 9% or higher over the next two to three decades so that we can not only alleviate the problem of poverty but at the same time ensure that long term growth impetuses and productivity increases are put in place. The inadequacy of physical infrastructure in its different forms continues to be an obstacle in this process. Hence, this initiative.
Our colleagues in the City of London, and in the financial sector, have not only shown great interest in working with us to enhance investment in India in the infrastructure sector but have also made concrete suggestions about the changes and improvement in systems and facilities in India that would encourage greater Foreign Direct Investment into India’s infrastructure and other sectors. These are issues that Finance Secretary and his colleagues would no doubt, address to the satisfaction of the participants present today. Our objective at the High Commission is to bring you all together and try to keep you in the room till the white smoke emerges out of the chimney at the end of the discussions.
We in India are confident that we can sustain a high growth rate in the coming years. This confidence is based on concrete parameters of the Indian economy and our development paradigm. It is not based on wishful thinking. We want our partners in the financial institutions in London to help us meet our objectives and to participate in our growth story. This will be to mutual benefit.
The importance of the development of infrastructure in developing countries was underlined at the recent G-20 Summit in Seoul. The Seoul consensus has identified nine key pillars where action is necessary to resolve the most significant bottlenecks to inclusive, sustainable and resilient growth in developing countries. At the top of the list is development of infrastructure. The Multi Year Action Plan on Development that has been adopted has identified concrete actions to take this process forward. This includes the development of comprehensive infrastructure action plans. How best this could be done was perhaps aptly summarized by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in his address to the Seoul Summit where he referred to the need to find innovative ways of meeting the enormous cost of infrastructure development in emerging markets. He proposed that “even as we try to avoid a destabilizing surge of volatile capital flows to developing countries, there is a strong case for supporting long term flows to these countries to stimulate investment, especially in infrastructure. Recycling surplus savings into investment in developing countries will not only address the immediate demand imbalance, it will also help to address developmental imbalances. In other words, we should leverage imbalance of one kind to redress imbalance of the other kind.” We look forward to hearing the views of the very large numbers of financial experts gathered here today on this particular outcome of the Seoul Summit.
Distinguished guests, we in India have already decided that in the next, the 12th Five Year Plan that will begin in 2012, our investment in infrastructure will amount to at least 1 trillion US dollars. This is over and above the amount of half a trillion US dollars in infrastructure that is envisaged in the current, 11th , Five Year Plan.
The successful implementation of India’s infrastructure plan over the next few years will not only benefit India but will also help in the process of revitalizing the international economy. We would, therefore, urge you to look at innovative ways and means of investing in India’s infrastructure sector. The risks that you may take will, undoubtedly, be well compensated. I would urge you all not to lose this opportunity.
Thank you once again for accepting our invitation. The presence here of London’s financial and investing community, in such large numbers, reflects the seriousness with which you look at the Indian market. Our decision to hold this Conference in London is to underline the importance that we attach to The City as a financial centre that can help us meet our objectives in a timely manner.
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