Norway pension fund gets PM invite to fund other sectors

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Norway’s pension fund to invest in new sectors in India citing the complementarity of the economies of the two countries.

Modi, during a bilateral meeting with Norwegian Premier Erna Solberg here, underlined the Indian openness to foreign investment and also invited Norwegian companies to invest in India, a Norwegian government statement said.

Modi encouraged the Norwegian State Pension Fund Global to consider investing in new sectors in India, it said.

The Pension Fund had invested $11.7 billion in India at the end of 2017, an increase of 2.5 billion from 2016.

During their meeting here on Tuesday, the two leaders also agreed that the complementarity of the economies of the two countries offered huge scope for greater cooperation.

The areas of cooperation that were discussed included energy, green transport, environmental technologies, innovation, maritime and marine economies.

Modi and Solberg also discussed a joint action plan to achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Solberg underlined the importance of India succeeding if the world is to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the statement said.

Prime Minister Modi stressed that Norwegian and Nordic technologies and experiences could play a positive role in helping India achieve the goals, it said.

“Also the importance of the world taking decisive action to stop the environmental degradation of the oceans and to develop sustainable use of the vast resources of the ocean was a key topic of discussion,” the statement said.

The bilateral meeting was followed by an Indo-Nordic Summit where all the five Nordic prime ministers participated.