“Today, our ambitions are very high, to increase of bilateral trade five-fold over the current levels,” Jaitley said at the 11th economic summit here organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce.
“Both India and the US are natural allies, both democracies. While the US has the financial capital and advanced technology, India has a large body of trained manpower, natural resources and a large market,” he said.
India is the second largest source of foreign direct investment in the US, and the largest in Britain, Jaitley added. India-US trade currently has an annual turnover of $100 billion. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Facebook headquarters in California, US, later this month, the social networking site’s co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Sunday.
Jaitley said that ensuring a predictable taxation regime in India and improving ease of doing business “are works in progress”, while efforts have been made to evolve a very “fair” taxation regime. The minister said declining oil and other commodity prices in this phase of global financial turmoil have helped India as the country is a net importer of commodities.
US ambassador to India Richard Verma said Modi’s forthcoming visit to the US, especially to San Francisco and the Silicon Valley, has generated a lot of excitement as he will be the only second Indian prime minister to visit California after Jawaharlal Nehru.