QUNOMIC TINE |

pare

NM Sor

ew

ee ee ee ne

Pierce
"

FALURU | OUNDAY | ILE EBRUARY 2022 1 WWW. BOCONOMIC TIN Bos.CON

Chairman, Gemcorp Capital Management

ndia Among Most <*, wer

Attractive Foreign Ne —

Investment Hotspots

He says foreign investment rose 20 times inthe

last 20 years and that this was not by accident

Team ET

New Delhi: India has become one of the

most attractive destinations in the world
for foreign investment, but there is a need
to level up those states in the country that
have fallen behind, said .

Lord Gerry Grimstone, chairman, Gem-

corp Capital Management.

The former UK minister for investment

said, addressing a session on ‘Unlocking
Growth through Foreign Investment’ on
Saturday, that manufacturing has a “pro-
found” social and economic impact as it
helps re-establish the social hierarchies in
towns and cities.

“Extraordinarily, foreign investment has

increased 20 times in India in the last 20
years and this hasn't come about by acci-
dent and particularly since 2014,” Grim-
stone said. Since 2014, there have been gov-
ernment policies such as the impact of the
ease of doing business, reforms to the tax
code to make it transparent, many econom-
ic changes and “arealsea change in the wel-
coming attitude that India pays to foreign
investors”, he said.

Emphasising that India has a “very inves-

tor friendly environment”, he said, “I real-
ly do believe that India has now become one
of the most attractive destinations in the
world for foreign investment. And that has
enormous implications going forward.”

As per Grimstone, five states in India at

the moment attract 90% of foreign direct
investment. “How do we level up states that
have fallen behind or weren't so lucky to
benefit from this?” he said. This situation
is similar to that in the UK, where there isa
hugeconcentration of economic activity in
London, he said. “We found that foreign in-
vestment was vitally important. And we
over-incentivised foreign investors to set
up investments, particularly manufactur-
ing investments, in those parts of the UK
which needed levelling up,” he said. UK

® ENORMOUS IMPLICATIONS

| really do believe that India

has now become one of the
most attractive destinations in
the world for foreign invest-
ment. And that has enormous
implications going forward

businesses with foreign investments were

70% more productive than their domestic
counterparts and were a huge source of
productivity for the British economy as
they exported more because of their links
back to their home countries, tended to pay
higher wages and generated much more in-
tellectual property than their British coun-
terparts, hesaid.

T0000