Mukherjee pitches for foreign investment in infrastructure

CHICAGO: Pitching for foreign investment in the infrastructure sector which needs $one trillion in the 12th five-year plan, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today asked the US investors to access the Indian debt market through a mechanism of regulated entities with a sustained long-term interest rate.

Meeting leaders of Fortune 500 companies here, he assured them that India has evolved a transparent and stable regulatory regime in sectors such as electricity, telecommunications, ports, airports, petroleum and natural gas, and a regulator for the coal sector is on the anvil.

He told them that India has recently liberalised foreign participation in the debt-equity market by allowing foreign investors to invest in the Indian equity directly.

Seeking a "greater degree of involvement" of foreign investors, Mukherjee said the "debt requirement for the infrastructure sector is very large."

He said India had recently evolved a mechanism to enable access to the Indian debt market through infrastructure debt funds which will be regulated entities with a sustained long-term interest rate, long horizon entities like pension and infrastructure and insurance funds.

Those present at the meeting organised by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs (CCGA) included CCGA President Marshall Bouton; Stephen Chipman, CEO Grant for Thornton LLP; James A Gordon, President and Founder, Edgewater Funds; Brian Kenney, Chairman, President and CEO of GATX; Jennifer Scanlon, President International and Vice President USG Corporation; Matthew J Shattock, President and CEO of Beam Inc; Gordon Hunter, Chairman, President and CEO Littelfuse Inc; and Rajeev Gautam, President and CEO of UOP LLC - a Honeywell Company.