SEOUL / AGENCIES
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that India has emerged as a land of opportunities. Addressing India Korea business Symposium here today, he said that in last four years India has jumped 65 places in World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking and has reached to 77th position.
Highlighting the investment-friendly ecosystem in India, he said that Foreign Direct Investment in more than 90 percent sectors is now on automatic route for approval and FDI worth over 250 billion dollars have been received in last four years.
Prime Minister said that South Korea is a truly natural partner of India and business relations between the two countries have come a long way. He said that the negotiations to upgrade the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement have been fast-tracked to achieve the bilateral trade target of 50 billion Dollars by 2030 from the present level of 21.5 billion dollars.
He added that over 600 Korean companies have invested in India and their total investments into India have reached a cumulative figure of almost 6 billion Dollars.
Prime Minister said that there is a huge demand in India in Transport, Power, Ports and Urban Infrastructure sectors and urged Korean businessmen to invest in these sectors and use their strong technological capabilities and capacities.
Prime Minister also said research and innovation would be the driving force in the 4th industrial revolution era and the role of government is to provide the support system. He said the government has introduced flagship program Start-up India with 1.4 billion dollars fund. He also appreciated South Korea’s efforts to spend 9.4 billion dollars by 2020 to increase capital supply for startups.
On the first day of his two-day visit to South Korea, Prime Minister also inaugurated India Korea Startup Hub. In his address, South Korea’s Minister for Trade, Industry and Energy Mr.Yunmo Sung said that Make in India initiative is a great step towards collaboration between the companies of two countries. He said that future cooperation between India and Korea is vital for start up ecosystem in both countries.