Government stand on Chinese investment unchanged: Piyush Goyal

NEW DELHI — Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said there has been no rethink on the government’s stand on allowing Chinese investment and the views expressed in the Economic Survey do not represent the government’s views.

Replying to supplementaries in the Lok Sabha, Goyal said the government scrutinises Chinese investments and its stand in this regard has not changed.

During the Question Hour, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi alleged that India has become dependent on China and quoted the Economic Survey, saying it supported getting foreign direct investment (FDI) from the neighbouring country.

Goyal hit back at the Congress, saying under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule, India had become dependent on neighbouring countries.

“Under the Congress, imports increased from USD 4 billion to USD 40-45 billion, which is more than 10 times. In our term, the increase is only 2-2.5 times. We took steps to make India self-reliant,” the minister said.

“I am making a direct allegation against the UPA…. Their name has changed, it is now the INDI Alliance…,” he said.

“We do not know what was that MoU (memorandum of understanding)with China. The trade deficit went up by 30 times under the UPA…,” the commerce minister said.

“The BJP-led NDA has controlled China and also their investment,” he asserted.

Referring to the Economic Survey, Goyal said, “As far as the chief economic advisor is concerned, they bring an independent, autonomous report. It is their thought, the Government of India at present has not changed its stand.”

“The investment that comes from China is checked, wherever we do not feel it is appropriate, it is stopped. Our policy remains the same, the chief economic advisor gave an advice,” he said.

The pre-budget Economic Survey made a strong case for seeking FDI from Beijing to boost local manufacturing and tap the export market.

As the United States and Europe are shifting their immediate sourcing away from China, it is more effective to have Chinese companies invest in India and then export the products to these markets rather than importing from the neighbouring country, the survey said.

India faces two choices to benefit from the “China-plus-one strategy” — it can either integrate into China’s supply chain or promote FDI from China.

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