Sitharaman to plan blueprint as India eyes firms leaving China

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is planning to pitch a blueprint to the international companies who are contemplating to move out of China. Talking to the reporters, Sitharaman, who is on an official tour to Washington DC, said that the businesses moving out of China are considering “India is the pitch.”

India as a preferred destination

Sitharaman, with the blueprint, will approach the multinational corporations to push India as a far more preferable destination. "I'd certainly be doing that - go back and design in some way whereby I will identify those multinational corporations, all American businesses or any other country European or a British origin who are moving out of China or who probably are even contemplating,” said Sitharaman after she concluded her interactions at the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in Washington. Sitharaman is accompanied by the RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, Secretary Economic Affairs, Shri Atanu Chakraborty and other officials.

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Influence of the US-China trade war

The Union Minister clarified that India’s decision is not completely based on the US-China trade situation. "That could either aggravate the situation or probably just influence at some level. But the fact remains that there are companies which are looking at relocating for various other reasons also," she said. "That is why I gave that little fine line that I'm drawing about companies which would want to locate elsewhere outside of China,” she added.

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Vietnam as an option for firms

Sitharaman believes that Vietnam is not a feasible option for companies to invest and expand. "In fact, today, one of the conversations that I was having with some of the bank and the government representatives was that even Vietnam now probably is getting saturated. They don't have enough manpower to address expansionary programmes of investment," she said. Sitharaman also touched upon the global economic risks and global co-operation at the multilateral level. “A calibrated and balanced approach to deploying a mix of fiscal, monetary and structural measures by countries can help achieve their growth potential,” said the Finance Minister.

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(With PTI Inputs)