Ambassaador Vikram Misri, yesterday./ Photo: Executive Forum
The Diplomat. Madrid
India’s Ambassador to Spain, Vikram Misri, presented the programme “Make in India” yesterday in Madrid. Through this programme, the country intends to attract foreign investments. Misri pointed out that one of the big appeals in India is the resilience of its economy facing economic fluctuations.
In an event organized by Executive Forum along with Manubens Abogados and Talgo, the ambassador shared the details of this initiative by his country, which is the seventh economy of the world at the moment, with annual growth rates of 7.4% and expectations to grow even more, ahead of countries such as China and the United States.
Misri emphasized that, facing the sudden halts suffered by other emerging economies, India is one of the few countries that is not being affected by international financial upheavals and added that economic incentives set in motion by the Government can improve the productivity of companies and their investment capacity.
India aspires to attract investments in new technologies, defence, telecommunications, transport, electronics and aviation.
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The Ambassador appeals for Spanish companies in renewable energy, construction, smart cities and food
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According to the ambassador, one of the objectives of the programme is to remove bureaucratic barriers such as licenses and regulations that hinder the process to do business, in order to allow the opening to direct foreign investment in sectors such as defence, construction and railway.
In particular, in the railway sector, which represents 1.2 % of its GDP at the moment, the country wants to reach 3 % by 2020, which offers opportunities for Spanish companies, as Talgo’s managing director, José María Oriol, pointed out by affirming that one of the challenges in India is to increase the trains’ average speed (the current is of 55 km/h), to reach 2,500 kilometres of new infrastructures per year and to increase the number of travelling cars up to 17,500 and of freight trains up to 62,000.
As well as in the railway sector, the Indian Ambassador indicated that Spanish companies have opportunities in fields such as that of renewable energy, smart cities, civil construction and food processing, in which the Spanish experience is well-known.
