US official calls for concluding investment treaty with India
May 23rd, 2008
US official calls for concluding investment treaty with India
New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) — A bilateral treaty on investment will further enhance business ties between India and the US and give a positive signal to the world, a visiting US official said here Thursday. Speaking at a roundtable conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Daniel Sullivan, assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs, said that concluding the bilateral investment treaty is an important priority of the present US administration.
He noted that the first round of negotiations held in February “reflected a strong desire between the two sides to conclude the treaty”.
A CII press release said that Sullivan quoted a speech by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that “investment is a sign of faith” and said the US would like to deepen this faith with India.
The official pointed out that Indo-US trade grew by 30 percent in 2007 to reach $40 billion.
