The Hindu : No going back on reforms: Jaswant

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Saturday, Nov 23, 2002

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No going back on reforms: Jaswant

By Our Special Correspondent

The Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, with his Chinese counterpart, Xiang Huaicheng, at the G-20 Finance and Central Bank Deputies meeting at the Taj Palace Hotel in New Delhi on Friday. — Photo: Shanker Chakravarty

NEW DELHI NOV. 22. The Union Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, today reiterated that there was no going back on reforms and that the Government was committed to the process of public sector disinvestment which was an integral part of the reforms process.

Responding to queries from foreign media during a joint press conference with the U. S. Secretary of the Treasury, Paul O'Neill, the Finance Minister said "my time-table for reforms I have already outlined on a number of occasions — it can only go in one direction — forward and with every step we take, it will generate its own synergy. There is no going back and there is no ambiguity about it.''

On disinvestment, he said "we are committed to disinvestment and there is no ambiguity about that either. But India and the Government is a democracy with many colours and if some viewpoints arise, we will discuss them.''

Asked whether India could achieve the eight per cent growth target set for the next five years, Mr. Singh said, "We are hopeful. Lately, we have had the worst drought in the last 10 years, there has been a stand-off with our neighbour which we are beginning to disentangle and we do not see much of an international economic revival.'' He said that despite these adverse factors, India's foreign exchange reserves had topped $65 billion, industrial growth was looking up as were exports and in spite of a low agricultural production, the economy was clocking over five per cent growth. "All this makes me believe we can reach eight per cent growth."

Taking away a question addressed to Mr O'Neill about the low foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow into India as compared to China, Mr. Singh said, "In all fairness, I should take that question. The principal impediment to the inflow of FDI is the rigidity of the system and I am at it to streamline it. Have I done enough? No, but we are at it and India being a federal country, the States are very zealous about their procedures.''

"When I talk about $65 billion reserves and with $500 million coming in every week, you will see much more coming in the coming days,'' he added.

Earlier, emerging from the Cabinet-level meeting of the India-U.S. Economic and Financial Forum, both Mr. Singh and Mr. O'Neill said the stated desire of the two countries was to make bilateral economic relations commensurate with the high level of political understanding and cooperation between the two countries, including security and the fight against terrorism.

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