MUMBAI: Commerce and Industry minister Suresh Prabhu said on Saturday the government has set a target of attracting USD 100 billion in foreign direct investments over the next two years.
Boosted by the USD 16-billion Walmart-Flipkart deal last August, which is the biggest-ever foreign fund inflow into the country-2018 saw the country for the first time in two decades overtaking China with USD 38 billion in inbound FDI deals compared to China's USD 32 billion.
Other major deals included Unilever buying out GSKs consumer business in the country for over Rs 31,700 crore, Schneider Electric, TPG Capital, KKR, Softbank, and Alibaba among others. "We have achieved record FDI inflows last year. We have set a target and are already working on bringing in USD 100 billion FDI (by 2020)," Prabhu said at an Indian Chamber of Commerce event.
The minister said the government is conducting a sector analysis for FDI investments and is preparing suitable policies which will help in bringing foreign funds.
The commerce minister said exports during this fiscal year will top the past record of USD 323 billion in 2014 and he expects it to be over USD 330 billion. "But, I am not happy about it. We should have much higher exports. This will help in job creation as well," he said.
Besides ease of doing business, the government is focusing on the ease of investments as well, he said underlining the need for better and deeper integration of the domestic economy with the global economy. "If you remove the hurdles for investments, we can see investments coming in from all sources portfolio, FDI or domestic. It will lead to better growth," he said. Railways and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal was also present at the function.