The Hindu Business Line : Full-time US Treasury rep to be posted in Mumbai

Reflecting India's growing economic and financial importance globally, the US is to soon have a full-time treasury representative based in India. At present, the US has such full-time treasury representatives only in Japan and China.

Talking to reporters here on Tuesday, Mr Timothy Adams, Under Secretary of International Affairs, US Treasury Department, said: "This is part of a process of putting permanent treasury representatives in key financial and economic centres across the globe. We already have one in Tokyo and recently we posted one in Beijing. We will have our full-time India representative in the next two months. India will be followed by Brussels," Mr Adams said.

Though he did not mention the city where the treasury representative in India would be posted, given the need to constantly interact with institutions such as the Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai seemed to be the likely destination.

As part of a review process, the US was also winding up permanent treasury representative positions in places such as Argentina, Mr Adams said.

Full convertibility

On full convertibility of the rupee, Mr Adams said he had discussed the issue with the RBI here on Tuesday. Admitting that convertibility was an important step towards liberalising capital flows, he said one would need to wait till the report of the RBI-appointed committee on full convertibility, expected to come out in July.

Mr Adams said India would benefit in the medium term from the IMF, where the US was diluting its presence to ensure reforms. "Fast growing economies around the world are under-represented in IMF. India's voice is important," he said.

Though India was hitting its stride on the economic growth front, it still needed to ensure more vigorous reforms in areas such as infrastructure and financial service sector, he said. Speedy dispute redressal mechanism was an area of concern, he admitted.

"The issue is how to speed up the process and put in place alternative mechanisms. One needs to get disputes adjudicated within an appropriate time frame," Mr Adams said.