The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : `Indian bureaucracy posing a hurdle to investors'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 02, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

`Indian bureaucracy posing a hurdle to investors'

Special Correspondent

Bangalore: Italian Trade Commissioner Vittorio Mecozzi has said that the Indian bureaucracy was often a hurdle to foreign investors.

Speaking to presspersons at the inauguration of Stona-2006 here on Wednesday, he said, "Things have started to improve, especially after the Memorandum of Understanding signed one year ago between India and Italy. Compared to China, the Indian bureaucracy is still a hindrance when it comes to foreign investments." Mr. Mecozzi said Italy exported goods valued over $ 23.40 million to India. These included capital goods, textile machinery and electronic items. He said 10 Italian companies are participating in the exhibition.

A spokesperson for Italian trade, Associazione Italiana Marmomacchine, exporting stone and granite finishing machinery, said from the qualitative standpoint, Indian and Brazilian granites differed. According to U.S. Customs figures, both countries are doing well but the export growth differed. Compared to a 23.5 per cent increase in imports to the U.S. from Brazil, it was almost six times from India over a three-year period.

There has been noteworthy growth in India's stone exports because of the investments in machinery and equipment from Italy. According to data for the first 10 months of 2005, India had become the fourth largest buyer of Italian stone technology with purchases worth over 33 million Euros. These technologies are being showcased at the exhibition.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail