Products & tech, not FDI, on top of Obama's agenda

NEW DELHI: US President Barack Obama’s November visit carries an unusual business twist especially when compared to the visits of his predecessors, President Bill Clinton and President George Bush. This visit is focused more on building strategic government-to-government relations on one side, and pushing sales of US products and technologies to India on the other, rather than fostering large scale US FDI into India.

Obama is scheduled to visit Mumbai and Delhi during his three-day visit with some discussion about a third city, if the schedule permits. Apart from government discussions , a business summit will be hosted in Mumbai on November 6. Obama, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, US secretary for commerce Gary Locke and USIBC chairman Terry McGraw will address the summit. Obama’s delegation is also expected to be accompanied by a team of key US CEOs.

According to sources, Obama’s business agenda carries items, which will eventually lead to the sale of US products and technologies in the areas of defence , nuclear and civil aviation. This is in contrast to the previous visits of US Presidents, which sought to drive investment into India’s roads, ports, telecommunications, energy and infrastructure.

This strategic shift reduces the scope for joint ventures contributing to far less enthusiasm in the Indian business community especially when compared to Clinton’s first visit to India in 2000.
A senior government official coordinating discussions with the White House advance team confirmed to TOI that there was a marked difference in enthusiasm in the business community for the Obama visit when compared to the previous Presidential delegations.

However, for the US, the visit is quite important because large-scale sale of products and technologies to India is key to its sagging fortunes and troubled labour market. The US companies that expect to gain most out of the Obama visit are Boeing, Lockheed Martin , GE, Westinghouse and a few US universities that are exploring investment opportunities in the higher education sector.

The government meetings are likely to be dominated by discussions around civil nuclear agreement , joint counter-terrorism discussions and other strategic talks on defence and military cooperation.

But the defence ministry has indicated that India may not sign the Communications Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement and the basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement on Geo-Spatial Cooperation.

So far most business associations have held their proposed discussion points with the Obama delegation close to their chest, with no public statements by any of the leading industry bodies with regard to meetings except the one being coordinated by the USIBC.