India is no more perceived as a business friendly destination by the American investors, according to George N Sibly, consul general of the United States in Kolkata.
Sibly said, the American investors had shown lot of interest in India following the start of the reform process in early 90s.
But following the first phase of soft reforms, the country has failed to maintain the momentum, he rued, and added that implementation of certain hard reform decision have been stalled on account of political reasons.
The US state department official pointed out that unless laws governing labour, insurance etc were reformed and bureaucratic red-tapism was removed, it will be difficult to attract US investment to the country.
Sibly said, due to the slow down in the US economy at present the American investment outside has come down significantly.
However, in this gloomy scenario also, China is able to attract ten times more US investment than what flows into India.
Referring to pulling out of AES Trans Power from electricity distribution business in Orissa, Sibly said, the incident has disappointed the US authorities and investors as well.
"This should not have happened. I hope the misunderstanding between AES and the state government is cleared soon", he observed.
Orissa few years back featured among the top states in the country in attracting the US investment. But now there are 'seldom' enquiries from American investors on Orissa, particularly after AES fiasco.
Stating that Orissa should compete with other states of India and other south Asean countries by creating conducive climate to attract investment, Sibly, pointed out that Orissa has immense potential in the field of mineral processing, tourism, food processing, agriculture and handicraft.
But no outside investor will be interested to come here unless the state guarantees good return on the investment, he added.