Vibrant Gujarat 2015: US looks to invest $41 bn in India over next 3-4 yrs

The US business delegation attending the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit will be looking at a potential investment target of around $41 billion in India in the next 3-4 years. This was revealed in an informal survey done by the US India Business Council (USIBC), which is bringing one of the biggest US business delegations, comprising 127 individuals and 60 firms.
However, even as firms will be scouting for doing business in other states, Gujarat tops as the preferred location for ease of doing business, revealed most senior company executives in the survey.
“USIBC will bring the biggest delegation of US companies, three times the size of the one which came last year. The number that we have been talking about as a potential investment target in India is $41 billion, which has been identified by an informal sampling of our companies in the next 3-4 years, if the economic reforms that have been aspired to by the Prime Minister and by the government are fulfilled. We found that the ease of doing business in Gujarat has been rated high by business heads owing to it being a power-surplus state and the commitment of the government here to engage in ‘problem solving’ for investors. When I took an informal survey of our member companies, they said it is because of the ease of doing business and companies that have manufacturing plants in Gujarat say that they have generally received very good cooperation from the government for completing the projects on time and within budget,” said Diane Farrell, president (acting), US India Business Council (USIBC) in an exclusive interaction with The Indian Express.
Farrell added that US firm Westinghouse Electric Company, which builds and operates approximately one half of the world’s operating nuclear plants, is attending the summit and will be looking at setting up a plant in the state. She said, “Among companies engaged in the defence sector that are part of the US delegation include Boeing, Lockheed, Textron and their senior executives like Graham Cable, VP (Project Development, Westinghouse), Pratyush Kumar, President of Boeing India and Ellen Lord, President & CEO of Textron Systems Corporation are expected. Apart from traditional technology companies like IBM and CISCO, others like Dow Chemicals, Ford, Abott, General Motors, Peabody Energy and Cairn Energy will be here with us.” The business delegation hosted a dinner for US Ambassador to India Richard R Verma on Saturday.