Gujarat violence will not affect FDI: Soota

KOCHI: CII President Ashok Soota on Monday said the continuing violence in Gujarat would not affect foreign direct investment.

However, if there was no improvement in the situation, Gujarat would lose the most favourable state status among potential investors, he told a press conference.

He said the estimated losses due to the violence in Gujarat was about Rs 800 crore. On the positive side, local industries had stated that their businesses had not been affected. If the situation was brought under control soon, long term investments would not suffer, he said.

Emphasising the importance of labour reforms, he said laws in India must reflect the changing economic scenario. A key factor in enhancing the ''competitiveness of India Inc'', CII''s theme for 2002-2003, labour market reforms pose one of the toughest challenges ahead.

While reforms in other critical competitiveness enhancing areas like infrastructure, financial sector and taxation were moving ahead, any substantial progress was yet to be seen in labour law reforms, he added.

The centre''s decision to amend the industrial disputes act, the payment of wages act and contract labour act were steps in the right direction, Soota said.