Continuing on his mission to tell India’s ‘fascinating growth story’ abroad to rake in foreign investment, Finance Minister Chidambaram, on Wednesday, left on a three-nation tour of the U.K., France and Qatar.
In the first leg of his five-day visit, Mr. Chidambaram will lead the Indian delegation to the Sixth Ministerial India-U.K. Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) in London on Thursday. Assisting him in the deliberations, among others, will be DEA (Department of Economic Affairs) Additional Secretary Shaktikanta Das, Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Anand Sinha and DFS (Department of Financial Services) Joint Secretary Arvind Kumar.
During the EFD wherein the U.K. delegation will be led by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, macro-economic issues, trade and investment related matters, infrastructure financing, financial services and regulations, and insurance and pension sector issues will be discussed which will include deliberations on current financial sector reforms by the U.K. and India’s regulatory bodies.
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Apart from Mr. Osborne, the U.K. delegation will include Bank of England Deputy Governor Charlie Bean, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Dr. Vince Cable, and Commerce Secretary to the Treasury, Lord Paul Deighton, among others.
On the sidelines of the EFD, a bilateral meeting between Mr. Chidambaram and Mr. Osborne will also be held in which the two leaders are expected to discuss about the G-20 Clearing Committee on OTC derivatives, priority sector lending, the Bangalore-Mumbai economic corridor and visa issues, among others, according to a Finance Ministry statement here.
On the second leg of his visit on May 17 in Paris, Mr. Chidambaram is scheduled to hold a meeting with leading investors and also have discussions with OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria during his day-long stay.
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In Doha (Qatar) on Saturday, the Finance Minister is slated to hold discussions with his counterpart Minister of Economic and Finance Yousef Hussan Kamal and also have meetings with the CEOs of Qatar Investment Authority and Qatari Business Association. In particular, Mr. Chidambaram’s meetings in Qatar will include discussions with chief executives of leading companies, banks and pension funds based there.
Mr. Chidambaram is scheduled to return to Delhi on May 20.
With the objective of projecting India as a prime destination for foreign investment, Mr. Chidambaram had earlier held similar investor meetings in Hong Kong, Singapore, Europe, Japan, Germany, Frankfurt, Canada and the United States.