India has emerged as one of the largest trading partners of US, said US Ambassador to India Nancy J Powell.
“In over a decade, India has leaped from our 25th largest trading partner to 13th largest trading partner. However, given the size of our respective economies, we have a lot more room to grow in our commercial relationships and opportunities for our countries businesses and we hope Puducherry’s businesses can be part of this growth,” she said at an interaction at the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce here on Friday.
She said over the past years, US exports to India had increased by about USD 1 billion to over USD 22 billion, while India’s exports to US grew from USD 4 billion dollars to over USD 41 billion.
“When you count our bilateral trade in services, our total trade relationship is soon expected to top USD 100 billion,” she said. She recalled that when she left India in 1995, the value of US goods exports to India was around USD 3 billion.
Increasing mutual trade and investment opportunities was one of the top objectives of Vice President Biden during his trip to New Delhi and Mumbai two weeks ago. “We look forward to continue this dialogue during Prime Minister Singh’s visit to Washington,” Powell said.
Among the delegations, her team is seeing an increasing number of US Governors and Mayors leading sub-national delegations to look for opportunities in India’s second-tier cities.
“My team also wants to empower more Indian companies to explore our market in the US via Commerce Department’s SelectUSA initiative. One excellent upcoming opportunity for companies looking to invest in the US is the SelectUSA Summit which will be held at Washington DC from October 31 to November 1,” she remarked.
While welcoming the investments in America, she said if Indian companies are interested in participating in this Summit, Jim Golsen and our US Commercial office staff in Chennai will be happy to assist them.