India to continue being magnet for FDI: Kamal Nath

Even in the current global crisis, India will continue to be a magnet for foreign direct investment (FDI) funds.

Addressing the Partnership Summit 2009 ''Trade & Investment: Focussing on Opportunities and Growth'', in the capital today, union minister of commerce and industry Kamal Nath said that said that during April-October 2008, the FDI inflows to India stood at $18.7 billion, more than double the inflow during the same period last year.

The Summit, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), was attended by representatives from trade and industry in India and overseas.

Nath said: ''India looks forward to partner with countries that have a strong agri-food sector from production through processing and distribution to partner with India in bringing about the second agricultural revolution''.

He said that the second sector that offered immense potential is the SME sector.

''India's production design and process engineering costs – especially in the case of medium sized companies, are 70-80 per cent lower than in a developed country'', he added.

On the Doha Round of talks at WTO, Nath said, a development round without an outcome that provides full comfort to the livelihood and food security concerns of the poor in the developing countries, waqs not possible.

"These are too vital to be the subject of trade-offs. There cannot be a one size fits all approach."

"While developing countries have aspirations of moving from poverty to a semblance of the prosperity enjoyed by common people in countries of the North, the developed countries, quite validly have expectations from the rest of the WTO membership.

"The challenge that we have to grapple with is how to reconcile the legitimate aspirations of some with the understandable expectations of others. The key to finding this convergence would also be, I presume, the key to finding the convergence between globalisation and social justice''.