Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Jun 07, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Jun 07, 2002 |
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Industry & Economy
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Economy War fear has not hit foreign investors
Ashwini Phadnis
NEW DELHI, June 6
THE fear of outbreak of hostilities between India and Pakistan has not yet dampened the appetite of foreign investors in India as an attractive investment destination. Officials of the two apex chambers of commerce and industry -- the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) -- have confirmed to Business Line that they have not yet received a deluge of anxious enquiries from foreign investors. "There have been a few inquiries from abroad. But they have been mostly to check what the situation is on the ground. We can authoritatively say that the fear of war has not yet impacted the country's standing as an attractive investment destination,'' a senior CII official said. However, officials do admit that the on-going tensions at the border does "vitiate the atmosphere and create a a different and tough environment to do business.'' But what is probably helping India remain in the reckoning is the fact that investors are looking at a return on investment and there are few countries in the world that offer the kind of return of investment that India does, officials added. "Foreign investors have realised that in a democracy untoward incidents which are aberrations do take place. But the foreign investor also realises that in the long run India is a very safe investment destination,'' CII officials added. Officials of both the chambers did agree that the current stand off between India and Pakistan could lead to business people postponing their trips to the region. "Video-conferencing and use of the internet may become the order of the day for some time especially in days of cost cutting. But investment flows are not going to get affected,'' officials said. In terms of actual inflow of FDI investment into the country, chamber officials expressed confidence that there is unlikely to be any major dip in the inflow this year as compared to the past.
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