Minister of Commerce and Industry Arun Jaitley exhorted US businessmen to focus their attention on India, as it had an attractive foreign direct investment regime.
Interacting at the Indo-US Commercial Dialogue, he said most of the US businesses in India are profit-making ventures and some of them are household names.
Urging the US investors to take advantage of the Special Economic Zones and Agri-Export Zones, the minister said the SEZs with total or near total exemption from all duties presented a great opportunity for investment, which the US should exploit not only for the manufacturing of merchandise but also for services.
Jaitely pointed out that India has carved a niche for itself in the knowledge trade sector and has considerable manpower resource of both skilled and unskilled labour "which can meet the needs of manpower requirements of all the developed economies."
An Indian embassy release described the talks between Commerce Secretary Don Evans and Jaitley as "a frank and candid exchange of views on a range of bilateral issues."
Both observed that there is significant potential for enhancing and deepening bilateral trade and economic cooperation.