US govt, companies showing great interest in investing in India: Jaitley

Washington: There is a great interest about India in the United States and among its investors, said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday, adding that the relationship between the two countries was a "mature" one.

"There is a great interest about India in the US and among its investors," Jaitley told reporters as he winded up his week-long visit to the US during which he had meetings with US treasury secretary and the commerce secretary, addressed students of the Columbia and Harvard Universities and interacted with investors and American corporate leaders in New York, Boston, and Washington DC.

"Both, those inside the government and the US companies, have shown great interest in investing in India now," he said.

Jaitley, who led a high-powered Indian delegation to the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, said that the US companies are investing in India in a big way.

"You have Indians investing in the US, you have US companies investing in India. And, in November, a large contingent of US corporates is coming to India to invest," he said.

According to the United States Trade Representative (USTR) figures, India was US' ninth largest trading partner with the total two-way trade of USD 67.7 billion last year

It is loaded in favour of India, which runs a surplus of USD 24 billion.

Jaitley said the relationship between India and the US on the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) was a "mature" one.

"..and expansion of key sectors like aviation and defence would play a key role in increasing the bilateral trade to USD 500 billion per annum," he said.

The finance minister said India was among the largest recipients of FDI since it had "one of the most open policies as far as investment is concerned."

"I'm quite sure that we will continue to get the benefit of that investment," he said.

"I think it's a strategic relationship which is bound to be further consolidated," he said.

During his week-long visit, the minister had more than a dozen meetings in addition to his bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank meetings.

The finance minister said that India's capacity to undertake structural reforms even in a globally adverse environment was being appreciated globally.

"This is a fact which almost the whole body of investors and also a large number of my counterparts in other parts of the world acknowledges," he said.

"If areas like defence, civil aviation, which are very high investment areas, if you see investment pouring into those areas, it is obviously going to have an impact," he said.