Delhi plans 10 country-specific PPP centres as FDI magnets

NEW DELHI: The government plans to float a joint-venture company with the private sector to set up country-specific investment promotion centres in India and abroad. The move is aimed at involving industry in attracting FDI, crucial to achieve targeted GDP growth rate of 9% during the 11th Plan, an official said.

As per a proposal prepared by the department of industrial policy & promotion (Dipp), apex industry chambers would be asked to set up a society, trust or a company in collaboration with the Centre. This would then set up separate offices in the country and abroad where all information pertaining to investment in the country would be provided. Various clearances for FDI projects would also be handled by such windows to facilitate faster FDI clearances.

To begin with, the proposal on setting up country-focus windows would be a government-of-India initiative. It would be implemented under a new centrally-sponsored scheme (CSS) to be run during the 11th Plan. “The PPP model would be explored at a later stage when such windows start functioning fully,” an official source said.

Under the new scheme, 10 country-specific windows focusing on investment promotion from the US, Japan, Taiwan, UK, Germany, Singapore, France, South Korea, Switzerland and Italy would be set up in the country. Industry chambers would also be associated in the functioning of the windows before actually becoming stakeholders at a later stage.

The new scheme would merge the existing two schemes, Undertaking Investment Promotion Activities and International Cooperation and Joint Venture Asia Enterprise. The government is expected to set aside Rs 100 crore for running the scheme during the current Plan.

Apart from investment windows, the new scheme proposes to sponsor foreign junkets of state government officials. All expenses incurred by state governments for the participation of their officials in investment promotion missions organised by the government or industry chambers such as CII and Ficci would be reimbursed. This has been decided to promote specific location advantage of the country for attracting FDI that often gets lost in pan-India presentations.

“There is a gap between the country’s potential to attract FDI and actual FDI inflows. This is often because the information on the India story does not reach foreign investors correctly. The new scheme would aim to remove the shortcoming through active involvement of the Centre, states and industry bodies in promotional activities,” an official source said.