Ahead of US President Barack Obama's visit to India later this month, India and the US have launched an investment initiative to focus on capital market reforms and policy measures that would help spur long-term investment by American investors in India.
Though announced during the White House meeting between Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September, the India-US Investment Initiative was formally launched on Monday at Department of Treasury. An agreement in this regard was signed during a meeting between US Assistant Secretary of Treasury for International Finance Ramin Toloui and Ministry of Finance Additional Secretary Ajay Tyagi.
Through the signing of an arrangement for work under the Initiative, the US and India agreed to cooperate on facilitating capital market development conducive to financing investment, creating an environment that encourages investment in various sectors in India, and working to overcome any obstacles to such investment, a media release said.
They also met with a group of US portfolio investors and capital market experts that work on India.
The US-India Investment Initiative, announced by Obama and Modi after their meeting, was created to focus on capital market reforms and policy measures that would help spur long-term investment by US investors in India. "The discussion focused on potential policy measures that could facilitate US investment in India and deepen India's capital markets," the statement said.
Toloui and Tyagi discussed the importance of continued progress on India's economic reform agenda, which will promote India's growth and job creation, as well as greater US-India economic ties.
Toloui also noted that Treasury looks forward to continued engagement between the US and India on economic issues at the fifth annual US-India Economic and Financial Partnership Dialogue in India on February 12, 2015.
India-US to discuss bilateral investment treaty
Prime Minister Narendra Modi told US secretary of state John Kerry that New Delhi was prepared to hold early talks for resolving the long pending bilateral investment treaty (BIT) with USA.
Kerry too said the US would like to see the treaty take shape as early as possible. The BIT, the negotiations for which have lost steam in the recent past, was one of the economic issues which the two leaders focused on in their meeting on the sidelines of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in Gandhinagar.
The last time negotiations for BIT took place between India and the US were in February last year. The US has been pushing India for BIT as it believes the treaty will facilitate protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). Making a strong case for early restart of negotiations, visiting US assistant secretary of state for economic affairs Charles Rivkin had said in November last year that IPR protection was critical as investors looked for transparency, predictability and rule of law. He said BIT, which is expected to lure more US companies to India, could transform economic ties between the two countries.
“We can do better to improve. I just want to quote an example related to Bollywood, which loses 40% of profits every year for lack of protection for IPR.The US wants the Indian economy to grow and reach its potential. Entrepreneurs should know that ideas are not stolen as there is law in place for IPR protection,” he had said.
