Union Minister of Railways, Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution Shri Piyush Goyal addressed Ministerial Session at the CII Partnership Summit 2020 whose theme is ‘PARTNERSHIPS FOR LIVES, LIVELIHOOD AND GROWTH’. H.E. Lyonpo Loknath Sharma, Minister of Economic Affairs, Bhutan, H.E. Uz. Fayyaz Ismail, Minister of Economic Development, Maldives, H E Andres Allamand, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chile, H.E. Dmytro Senik, Deputy Foreign Minister, ,H.E.Caio Mario Paes de Andrade, Special Secretary (Vice Minister) for Debureaucratization, Management and Digital Governance, Ministry of Economy, Brazil took part in the session.

Shri Goyal said that coming together of friendly nations will help all of them to explore new opportunities, support each other, build upon the friendship and bring benefit for the well-being of their citizens. Mentioning about the close and deep-rooted relations with the participating nations, Shri Goyal said that India is looking forward to further expand and deepen its ties with them. Narrating about India’s support to the world during the pandemic, he said that India has always risen to the occasion in helping other nations. India provided free medicines to about 50 countries through grants, and supplied medicines to over 150 countries. Shri Goyal said that during the initial days of Covid-19, India had put restrictions on the export of medicines so that purchase of Indian medicines is not monopolized by rich nations, and these are available to less developed countries as well.

Talking about Aatamnirbhar Bharat, Shri Goyal said that self-reliant India will not be closing its doors to the partner countries, but there will be greater engagement with the world from the position of strength. He said that let us offer the best to each other, so that there can be prosperity for everyone.

Shri Goyal said that India is making efforts to deregulate its economy for greater investments from other parts of the world. “We have opened up defence, manufacturing, mining, finance, capital market sector. We have further liberalized agricultural laws to encourage greater investment in agri processing, investments in rural India, opening up market to increase incomes for our farmers.Overall we are looking at making doing business in India simpler, easier and more attractive.”, he added.

Shri Goyal said that India provides huge opportunity for investments, and procurement of goods and services. India is looking forward for working with friends and neighbours, and having a global footprint. He said that India is working to turn the Covid crisis into an opportunity, and is confident of reaching the target of $5 Tn economy by 2025, and $10 tn in another 7-10 years.

Aatmanirbhar Bharat as outward-facing economic strategy: self-reliance with calibrated export controls and investment liberalisation. India framed Aatmanirbhar Bharat as self-reliance coupled with international engagement, describing temporary export restrictions on medicines during the initial Covid-19 phase to prevent monopolization and preserve access for less-developed countries, alongside grant-based pharmaceutical assistance to many countries. Simultaneously, the government announced deregulatory and liberalisation measures-opening defence, manufacturing, mining, finance and capital markets and liberalising agricultural laws-to attract foreign investment, expand procurement opportunities and simplify doing business to turn the pandemic into partnership and growth opportunities.