FDI in multi-brand: Minister confident of consensus

Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma on Thursday exuded confidence that a 'political consensus' will be arrived at on the contentious issue of allowing foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail in the next few weeks.

"I am confident that the coming weeks will see the emergence of political consensus on liberalising FDI in multi-brand retail which will open immense opportunities," an official statement quoting Sharma said.

The minister is on a two-day visit to Russia for India-Russia Business Dialogue, held under the umbrella of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum 2012.

Sharma also held bilateral meeting with Deputy Prime Minister of Russian Federation, D Rogozin.

The policy decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail, which would have allowed global retailers like Walmart and Tesco to open outlets in India, was put on hold by the government in the wake of strong objection from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and United Progressive Alliance's key allies, including Trinamool Congress.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion has been in the process of holding consultations with state governments and stakeholders like farmers and consumer associations, to arrive at a broad consensus on this issue.

Stating that India aims to double its food processing capabilities in the next five years, Sharma said Russia can be an invaluable partner.

"Russia can play a major role to develop cross sectoral linkages in the entire value-addition chain from agriculture to retail, packaging and logistics," he said.

Besides, Sharma invited Russian companies to invest in infrastructure sector, wherein India is expected to invest $1 trillion over the next five years.

"We are also building gas and oil pipelines and Russian companies have considerable expertise in pipeline construction technologies which will greatly be valued," the minister said.

In the telecom sector, the two countries have seen the emergence of flourishing partnerships between India and Russia which will see investments of over $1.5 billion in the coming years, he added.

Emphasising the need to diversify trade basket with Russia, he said, the current trade profile is dominated by commodities with large imports of iron, steel, fertilisers and oil from Russia.

Thus, there is a need to expand the trade basket to have more value-added products.

Indian exports to Russia include drugs, pharmaceuticals, coffee, tea, tobacco, processed fruits and cotton yarn.

The two countries had set a bilateral trade target of $20 billion by 2015.

In 2011, the two-way trade between India and Russia was in the range of $9 billion.