India finmin heads to Canada, US

Chidambaram seeks to woo investors

NEW DELHI, April 13, (AFP): India’s finance minister heads to Canada and the United States this weekend to seek investment to plug a gaping hole in public finances and raise money to overhaul the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.

The investment roadshows, which kick off in Toronto on Monday, are the final leg of Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s tour which began in January of major global financial hubs that included Japan, Hong Hong, Germany and Singapore.

Chidambaram — a veteran politician mentioned as a potential prime minister if the embattled ruling Congress party wins the 2014 elections — is being accompanied by top finance ministry and central bank officials.

“This is a very important trip to attract investment,” a senior government official, who did not wish to be named, told AFP on Saturday.

“He will interact with top business leaders, pension, insurance and sovereign wealth funds and his government counterparts, talking about what India is doing to increase investment and speed up infrastructure projects,” the official said.

Chidambaram, reappointed to the finance job last year to revive India’s stumbling economy, was slated to leave Sunday on his tour that will also take him to Ottawa, New York and Boston, a finance ministry statement late Saturday said. His trip comes as Asia’s third-largest economy faces the biggest fall in direct foreign investment (FDI) in over a decade amid waning global risk appetite and domestic growth at a decade-low level that makes India a tough sell.

The FDI slide leaves India dependent on volatile foreign flows into stocks and bonds, that are far more prone to dry up in the event of economic crisis, to fund a record current account deficit.