JOIN USIndia, US mull $10 billion infrastructure debt fund
The debt fund has been mooted by the India-US CEOs Forum comprising 12 corporate leaders from each side, which could help India get resources to finance its $514 billion infrastructure investment plans.
“Both the governments will consider the recommendation... It is India-US infrastructure debt fund proposed by the CEOs Forum of $10 billion,” Sharma told reporters on the sidelines of a CII meet here.
“Finance Minister (Pranab Mukherjee) and US Treasury Secretary (Timothy Geithner) are directly discussing what modalities should be adopted to put in place the infrastructure debt fund,” he added.
However, Sharma added that details of the proposed fund would be known after the two countries take a final call on it without a specifying timeline.
“The governments have yet to take a final view and put in place the modalities. In principle, it has been agreed that the governments will be fully supportive of the recommendation,” Sharma said.
“No time frame has been suggested for the proposed debt fund. A lot of work has to go before finalizing the mechanism for putting in place the infrastructure debt fund,” Sharma said. Earlier addressing the conference on Indo US economic cooperation organised by CII, Sharma said India and US are global leaders in medicine and pharmaceutical sector and the two countries can significantly gain by co-operating with each other in this sector.
While the US is the global leader in pharmaceutical research and development sector, Indian pharmaceutical companies have gained the reputation of providing low-cost manufacturing.
“The partnership between the two countries can create a lot of value for global pharmaceutical production and increase access to medicines across the world by driving the cost of production,” he told the visiting US CEOs.