India projects itself as a reliable partner, stable economy and an attractive investment destination at World Economic Forum @Davos

Shri Piyush Goyal holds over 50 meetings in three days with trade ministers of various countries, CEOs and leaders to push the India Story

Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, who led the team India at World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos from 23-25 May 2022, finished his trip with several high-level engagements aimed at projecting India as a reliable partner, a stable economy and an attractive investment destination. Shri Goyal, who was accompanied by two Union Ministers, viz. Shri Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare and Shri Hardeep Puri, Union Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas, leveraged the WEF platform to further help reinforce its position as a crucial stakeholder in shaping the global narrative. 

The Minister held meetings with Mr. Khalid Al- Falih, Minister of Investment, Saudi Arabia, Said Mohammed Ahmed Al Saqri, Minister of Economy, Oman and Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, UAE besides Secretary General of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Nayef Al Hajraf, CEOs of DP World Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, and Khaldoon Al Mubarak CEO & MD, Mubadala Investment Company to take stock of the existing trade & investment relations and emphasized the need for closer integration. 

Shri Goyal also met CEOs including Arvind Krishna, CEO IBM, Alexander R. Wynaendts (Chairman-elect, Deutsche Bank, Bill Winters, Group CEO, Standard Chartered Bank, Bruce Flatt, CEO, Brookfield Asset Management Inc, Sanjay Mehrotra, President and CEO, Micron, Pat Gelsinger, CEO, Intel, Alan Jope. CEO, Unilever, Benoit Bazin, CEO, Saint Gobain,  Anil Agarwal, Executive Chairman, Vedanta Resources, wherein he emphasized upon India as a great investment destination with a number of government interventions including Gati-shakti, Asset Monetization program, Start-Up India, National Infrastructure Pipeline and Investment Corridors. 

Shri Goyal held meetings with leaders of various countries, regional and multilateral institutions including John F. Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, National Security Council, USA, Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce, US Department of Commerce, Simon Kollerup, Minister for Industry, Businers and Financial Affairs, Denmark, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, DG, WTO, Muhammad Lutfi, Minister of Trade, Indonesia, Fatih Birol, Executive Director, International Energy Agency, Queen Maxima of Netherlands, Guy Parmelin, Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research of Switzerland, Klaus Schwab, Founder & Chairman, WEF, Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice President, European Commission, to project the India story and inform about the reforms being undertaken by the government for improving the ease-of-doing business and the investment climate. 

Shri Goyal also addressed a number of sessions, including the Breakfast session Discussion on Trade 4.0, Invest India Round Table on Investment in India, India at 75: Strategic Outlook, The 2030 Industrial Development Agenda and ‘Trade now: what’. In his address the minister emphasized that the India story had been receiving a lot of enthusiasm across the world in spite of constraints like Covid 19, chip shortages, conflict, rising commodity prices, container shortages and significant shipping and logistics issues, which caused massive supply chain disruptions and threw the global economy off balance. Speaking about the recent wheat export regulation, the Minister emphasized that India wheat exports are less than 1% of world trade and our export regulation should not affect global markets. He said that India will continue to allow exports to vulnerable countries and neighbors,

In his next leg of the two-day tour, Shri Goyal is reaching UK tomorrow, where he will hold discussions with UK Government and businesses on the progress made in FTA negotiations and the way forward. During the Summit Meeting between the Prime Ministers of India and the UK, the two leaders had set the timeline of Diwali 2022 for finalization of the FTA between the two countries.

Investment promotion: India spotlights reforms and openness at global forum, seeking deeper trade ties and FTA progress. India promoted itself at the World Economic Forum as a stable investment destination through high-level bilateral and corporate engagements, highlighting reforms-national infrastructure planning, asset monetization, Start Up India, investment corridors and logistics initiatives-aimed at improving ease of doing business. The delegation sought closer economic integration, reassured partners about limited global impact of a recent wheat export regulation while committing to exports for vulnerable countries, and advanced ongoing market-access talks including a timeline-driven India-UK free trade agreement dialogue.