Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Tuesday that India may still be a developing country but is no longer influenced by the rising clamour for protectionism around the world, and is instead looking to further open up its economy to spur investment and trade.
Speaking at the U.K. India Tech summit in the capital, the minister said, “Normally, it is the least developed and developing economies that cry for protectionism and that is a voice which is now almost not heard in India. We are looking to open up and that’s been the direction of our economy.”
“We have wasted many opportunities in the past. And an aspirational nation does not want to let go of any opportunities for the future,” Mr. Jaitley said, adding that though India is now the fastest growing major economy, there is a great amount of impatience to grow even faster.
“To reform more, open up further, attract more investment, expand more in manufacturing, fill up the infrastructure deficit faster than we have been doing, there is a growing impatience in India, and rightly so,” the Finance Minister said, stressing that decision makers share such ‘impatience.’
Seeking investment“If industry has been investing outside, we welcome that, we encourage that,” he said while referring to the fact that India is now one of the largest investors in the United Kingdom. “We (also) seek a lot of investment into India. And therefore, we have liberalised our policy, created more instruments and our FDI policy is amongst the most open the world over.”
With U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May choosing India as the first destination for a bilateral visit outside Europe and the first trade mission under her watch, the Finance Minister said that this was driven by its impending proposed exit from the European Union.
“The U.K. today in view of recent developments is looking at a world outside Europe also and therefore it sees in countries like India one of the great future partners in trade and business, growing several-fold over the present level… Our voice is now getting increasingly noticed in the world,” he said, adding that there was a time seven decades ago when India’s then PM had called it a country that would ‘now acquire a voice.’
