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Climate for German investments in India positive: Eichel

German Finance Minister Hans Eichel has said the climate in India for German investment was now "favourable", but felt the flow could accelerate if economic reforms are pursued vigorously to remove infrastructure bottlenecks.

"The climate for German investments in India is now certainly positive," he said asking German companies to take advantage of the changed scenario to further economic ties between the two countries.

However, transport, ports, power and highways are still major bottlenecks in India, he told reporters, adding that these issues needed to be addressed immediately by the Indian government to encourage foreign investment further like China.

Eichel, who had a detailed meeting with Indian Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, said though central government was pursuing vigorously the reform process, what was important was that the reforms at the state level and local levels needed to be pursued with similar zeal.

He said bureaucratic delays were yet another impediment which needed to be resolved to step up FDI flow.

He said he had detailed discussion on the whole range of issues with Sinha and he was happy to learn that the Vajpayee government was committed to push forward reforms to effect macro economic stability.

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