Indian Pharma Industry to Gain From The Proposed GCC-India Free Trade Agreement: Doha Bank CEO.

"The GCC - India trade exceeded $80 billion for during the three quarters ending December 2010 and can exceed $100 billion for the year 2010-11. It could exceed $130 billion by 2013-14," Mr. Seetharaman said, while moderating a special session titled 'investment opportunities in India and GCC countries" at the event. There are several potential sectors for investments by Indian entrepreneurs in the GCC, including information technology, telecommunications, education, healthcare services, tourism and hotel industry, banking and financial services, oil, gas and petrochemicals, electricity, housing, road and rail network. The GCC investment in India has significantly increased in the last two years and is now estimated at more than $125 billion," he added.

The Special Guest for this panel was Mr. V. Narayansamy, Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievance & Pensions and Prime Minister's Office, Government of India. The panel members included Mr. R. Karikavalan, Commissioner, Department of Industries, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Mr. M.Velmurgan, IES, Executive Vice Chairman, Industrial Guidance and Export Promotion Bureau, Government of Tamil Nadu, Dr. V. Jabamalai, former Principal Advisor to Director General - UNIDO, Dr. B. Muniyandy, Professor and Head Department of Economics, Bhartiyar University and Dr. K. Govindrajulu, Professor, Department of Economics, Bharatiyar University, Coimbatore, India.

During the session, Mr. Seetharaman gave his outlook on the Indian Economy. He also extended the discussion to the investment trends in India on account of measures announced in the union udget, latest banking regulations and the Indian textile industry. Mr. Seetharaman extended the discussions to the recent budget announcements of Tamil Nadu, the incentives for Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and trends for FIIs in the Indian insurance industry.

He said: "The Tamil Nadu state budget has a marginal revenue surplus of Rs 173.87 crore for 2011-12 and revenue of Rs 85,685 crore."

On the insurance companies, he said: "The big positive for financial market is that FIIs will be to allowed to invest in mutual fund schemes. Insurance IPO guidelines for life insurance companies are underway and foreign investors can also consider tapping these investments."

In the session, Mr. Seetharaman extended the discussions on trends in pension fund business in India, Private equity business and SME business. He said "Global pension funds are increasing exposure to the Indian IPO and secondary market. Pension funds of some notable entities such as American Airlines, British Petroleum, IBM and Unilever, are registered in India."

The senior banker extended the discussions to industrial trends in India. He said: "India is becoming a very cost effective manufacturing hub for the automobiles industry. Chennai is one of the top 10 global automobile manufacturing centres with brands like Ford, Hyundai, BMW, Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi-HM setting facilities there."

Also, Chennai has emerged as India's largest automobile and auto components exporter in India, he said.

Mr. Seetharaman extended the discussions on IT sector trends in Tamil Nadu and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) trends in India. He said that the state of Tamil-Nadu was one of the first states in the Indian Union to formulate a comprehensive IT policy.

On the investment opportunities in the GCC, Mr. Seetharaman said "In Qatar, the total expenditure due to the scheduled FIFA World Cup in 2022 is expected to be around $65 billion. Other ongoing major project in the country is valued close to $40 billion. Qatar accounted for about 31 per cent of total construction projects announced in Middle East and North Africa recently."

Source : zawya.com