Sitharaman highlights 'significant reforms' in US investors' meet

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday highlighted "significant reforms" undertaken by the government including National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) and National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) as she met institutional investors in Boston.

Sitharaman arrived in the US on Monday for a week-long trip to attend the annual meet of the World Bank and IMF in Washingon as well as G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting.

During the official visit to the US, Sitharaman is expected to meet US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

After arriving in New York, Sitharaman travelled to Boston where she met investors during a roundtable hosted by FICCI and US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF).

The roundtable on Tuesday was attended by institutional investors from across a wide spectrum of sectors including software, consulting, financial advisory, insurance, telecom hardware and investment management.

"The FM highlighted significant reforms including the setting up of #IFSC at #GiftCity, #NIP and #NMP.

“The US companies welcomed the reforms and initiatives undertaken by the Government of India and committed to work with it to increase foreign investments in India,” the finance ministry said in a tweet.

Following the roundtable, Sitharaman held one-on-one discussions with top executives. Advent International Corporation Chairman and Managing Partner David Mussafer, after his meeting with Sitharaman, said that the reforms that have happened in India “are a great step forward."

“For international investors like ourselves, we are always looking for opportunities to take friction out of the system.

“The opportunity to invest more in India really rests upon some of the reforms that have been made," Mussafer said.

He added that some of the insolvency provisions that create opportunity for companies to invest in and breathe life into new opportunities that have struggled “are critical to the type of things that we look for and so we're incredibly excited about some of the reforms that have happened.”

Photograph: Finance Ministry/Twitter