The Hindu Business Line : `Strengthen intellectual property regime'

The US Consul General, Mr David T. Hopper, said that the US-India trade interests were converging and the potential was huge given the investment commitments made by companies such as Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Dell, Motorola and AMD.

However, issues such as strengthening the intellectual property regime and lack of commitment to contractual obligations in India, needed to be addressed.

Speaking at the Indian School of Business (ISB) here, Mr Hopper said that opening up investment opportunities in the infrastructure and other areas would be welcomed.

With the Nasscom-KPMG survey stating that the Indian biotech industry was set to touch the $5-billion mark and bio-informatics $2-billion by 2010, and the interests of the US enterprises and Indian companies converging, there was immense scope for mutual cooperation.

Investment line-up

Microsoft had committed investment of $1.7 billion, Intel $1 billion, Cisco $1 billion and significant investments from other companies such as Motorola, Dell and AMD were in the pipeline.

India had passed laws to strengthen the IPR but this needed to be implemented effectively.

As a part of the US effort, an IPR attache would be deployed in India to interface with various stakeholders.

It is proposed to train law enforcement agencies and some members of the judiciary on new areas such as patent protection, he said.

While the trade numbers reflect buoyant times, Mr Hopper touched upon some areas of concern including bureaucratic reforms that could attract more FDI in the areas of airports, ports, container terminals and other infrastructure projects.

He emphasised the investors' concern of lack of respect for contracts without specifically referring to any particular project. Revising the terms of the contract amounted to breach of contract, he said.

"Visa applications have grown by about 10 per cent per annum and this has subjected the US Consulate to processing pressure. The effort is now directed to ease this situation. We invite suggestions to improve the process," he said

"As a part of the President's commitment to set up a consulate office in Hyderabad, we expect to commission this by early 2008," Mr Hopper said.

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