India invites Dutch firms for investments in healthcare, agri sectors

During the webinar, organised by the Indian embassy here on Friday with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as a partner, the industry leaders highlighted that the IMF in its June forecasts has predicted that India will grow at 6 per cent in 2021. At the webinar, India’s Ambassador to the Netherlands Venu Rajamony invited Dutch companies to increase investments in India especially since there is substantial scope in sectors such as healthcare, water, agriculture and agri-tech, according to an official statement issued on Wednesday.

India has invited Dutch companies to increase their investments in the country, especially since there is a substantial scope in sectors like healthcare, water, agriculture and agri-tech. Large internal market and skilled labour availability make India an ideal location for the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and global supply chains, industry leaders informed the Dutch business community during a recent webinar here. During the webinar, organised by the Indian embassy here on Friday with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as a partner, the industry leaders highlighted that the IMF in its June forecasts has predicted that India will grow at 6 per cent in 2021.

At the webinar, India's Ambassador to the Netherlands Venu Rajamony invited Dutch companies to increase investments in India especially since there is substantial scope in sectors such as healthcare, water, agriculture and agri-tech, according to an official statement issued on Wednesday. "The CII has conveyed to Dutch business community that a large internal market and skilled labour availability make India an ideal location for foreign direct investment and global supply chains," it said. The webinar was participated by former Dutch foreign minister Uri Rosenthal, former Dutch ambassador to India, Fons Stoelinga and representatives of the Dutch government as well as leading companies like Shell and Philips. Rosenthal in his intervention said that the current geopolitical context puts India in a front runner position and provides enormous opportunities for intensifying India-Netherlands economic relations, the statement issued by the embassy of India said. Ambassador Stoelinga emphasised that India can find its niche in global value chains because India as a democracy is a more reliable place to count on, it said.

The CII was represented by Director General Chandrajit Banerjee and Chief Economist Bidisha Ganguly in the webinar. The speakers pointed out that a stimulus package of almost USD 280 billion amounting to 10 per cent of India's GDP has been allocated towards recovery efforts, the statement said. As per the world investment report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), India was a preferred destination for global FDI inflows amounting to USD 51 billion in 2019, it said. The Netherlands was the third largest investor in India for the financial year 2019-2020 with FDI inflows of USD 6.5 billion across a variety of sectors.

Total investments from the Netherlands to India in the period April 2000-March 2020 came to USD 33.85 billion. Amid the COVID-19 situation, Dutch multinational company Philips has announced an investment of USD 40 million for expanding its facility in Pune, the statement added.

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