Next 10 years to be India’s Infrastructure Decade

 

British and Indian investors and private sector leaders gathered yesterday to discuss UK-India Partnerships at the 4th CBC –CII India Infrastructure Forum in London.

 

Hon Kamal Nath, India’s Minister for Road Transport and Highways, opened the Forum, by declaring that the last 10 years had been India’s ICT Decade and the next would be the Infrastructure Decade. Speaking to the 200 strong audience of business leaders, Minister Nath said that while India expected to grow at 8% in 2010 and 9% in 2011, the country still faced enormous challenges. The county has become the ‘fastest growing free market economy in the world’ said the Minister, ‘but its biggest deficit is in infrastructure, this must be bridged to continue to grow’. The Minister told the audience that infrastructure is at the top of the government’s agenda. Speaking specifically about India’s road network, he said India is building 20Km of road a day, which is 7000Km a year and represents 50 Billion Dollars worth of work in progress. Addressing the theme of partnerships the Minister urged greater involvement of UK companies in India’s infrastructure projects. ‘Today we have the largest PPP programme in the world, in which we plan to invest $9 billion to improve airports, $12 billion to modernise ports and $130 billion in the power sector including transmission and distribution’.

 

Rt Hon Lord Andrew Adonis, Secretary of State for Transport, who represented the British Government at the Forum, spoke of the importance of Anglo-Indian business relations to both countries’ economies. British engineering, construction and consulting companies are anxious to further develop their international operations, said the Secretary of State, and must be made aware of the exciting opportunities that exist in India and will be available over the coming years. UK experts are available to help in the great infrastructure projects India is undertaking, said the British Minister.

It was announced that the two governments aim to sign an UK – India MoU that will focus on road construction, road safety and best practice in inspection and certification.

 

‘The UK is not currently making the most of the infrastructure opportunities in India’, said Dr Kaul CBC’s Director General. ‘We hope the Forum will serve to increase UK participation in India’s infrastructure boom and assist in finding new and innovative ways that the UK and India can work together to bridge the infrastructure deficit’.

 

Chandrajit Banerjee the Director General of CII, speaking during the Forum, said the ‘prospects for cooperation and partnership between Indian and British Companies are enormous but still under-used, we hope that the contacts made at events like this will result in greater cooperation between the two countries’

 

The Forum was organised by the Commonwealth Business Council and Confederation of Indian Industry and was sponsored by ICICI Bank, IL and FS Transportation, IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd, ISPAT Group, JM Financial Consultants Pvt. Ltd. UK Trade Investment (UKTI), Europe-India Chambers of Commerce, International Financial Services London, British Aviation Group, and British Expertise were event supporters.