Union
commerce minister Kamal Nath today said that the Indo-US
CEOs Forum has offered to assist in financing infrastructure
projects in India by setting up a $5-billion fund if it
could be managed with minimum government participation
He
said the government would receive a proposal on this in
the next few weeks.
An
agreement on the mechanism for setting up the fund was
discussed at a meeting of the forum in New York and attended
by the finance minister P Chidambaram and deputy chairman
of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia and
the commerce minister.
Nath
also said that several American companies had shown an
interest in retailing farm products, though the field
is not yet open to foreign
companies. However, they could invest in cold storage
and logistics of farm products, he said as farmers lose
a large amount of their produce because of inadequate
storage and transport facilities.
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