TWO investor meetings will be held in the Gulf region in November,
under an Indian government initiative to help overseas Indians channelise
NRI remittances into actual investments back in the country. The Overseas
Indian Facilitation Centre (OIFC), a single window investment facilitation
centre by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA), and the Confederation
of Indian Industry (CII), would hold these two meetings in Dubai and
Muscat, diplomatic sources said yesterday. These will be part of a series
of investor conferences the OIFC will be holding in places across the
world with significant Indian population.
OIFC chief executive Harmit Singh Sethi was quoted as saying at Sunday's
meeting in Muscat that the figure of 30mn overseas Indians was projected
to cross 50mn in the near future, and added that the need to offer investment
channels that met their needs had become extremely important. "The
products on offer would have low-risk factor, provide moderate to high
returns and would have longer shelf life", he said. The investor
meetings in the Gulf would showcase exclusive projects and products
for the Indians abroad in broad segments, targeted not only at big ticket
investments but also at the mid-level investors, the diplomat said.
Stating that India's export figures were soaring and Indian companies
were in the forefront of global mergers and acquisitions, the diplomat
said, "To sustain the current level of economic growth, India will
have to make massive investments in modernisation and development of
its core sectors." He added that investments in healthcare and
education were also needed to ensure that the country maintained an
edge over others in terms of the quality of human resource. The initiative
will surely increase NRI investment in India.
