Seeking investment in infrastructure and capital markets, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday emphasised that India is a safe destination with a potential of 8 per cent growth and providing comparable returns.
“The macro economic fundamentals and the micro economic fundamentals make India an attractive and safe investment destination,” he said while addressing the second South Asian Diaspora convention in Singapore.
The government, Mr. Chidambaram said, has taken a number of measures to stabilise the economy and give greater confidence to investors.
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“India can offer to the investor a variety of investment opportunities. There are Government securities and corporate bonds. There are mutual funds and Infrastructure Development Funds. We can offer equity in our public sector enterprises that are under the disinvestment programme.
“There is a clutch of projects in the oil and gas sector that will welcome strategic investors. Shortly, we will offer a public sector ETF that will allow you to buy units backed by underlying equity shares,” he said at the convention attended by over 1000 delegates.
Referring to growth, Mr. Chidambaram said India has a potential growth rate of 8 per cent and above and during the 20 year period between 1991-2011, the average growth rate was 7 per cent.
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Noting that the key to sustaining high growth rate is investment, the Minister said the government will endeavour to contain fiscal deficit to below 3 per cent of the GDP, safely finance the Current Account Deficit (CAD) and keep inflation under 5 per cent.