NEW DELHI, March 27: United States ambassador to India Richard F Celeste on Friday said that unsettled government policy inhibits investment by American companies in the domestic telecom sector."The sooner real authority is vested in the regulator, the quicker you will see increasing interest on part of US investors," he said. Celeste questioned the level of independence of the independent regulator.
Speaking at the interactive session on American participation in the Indian telecom sector organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci), Celeste said unsettled government policy is going to discourage and inhibit investment in Indian telecom.
"Businesses are also uncomfortable with political uncertainty," he said.
Reiterating that the United States was one of the largest investors in the country, he said that the image of India as an investment destination had improved in the last 3-4 years.
"The challenge is to duplicate the Indian software story in the telecomsector," he asserted, adding that in such a scenario US cannot afford to be excluded from the Indian market. "What worries the Indian telecom sector is that most US telecom companies are taking a step backwards and actually disengaging themselves," chairman of the Ficci telecom committee and group chairman of Bharti Enterprises, Sunil Mittal said.
Citing the establishment of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the infrastructure status awarded to the telecom sector and the series of duty concessions awarded to this sector, he wondered why American investments in the telecom sector were declining.
"China, in spite of its political milieu, gets a huge chunk of US investment. Why not India," he questioned. On the manufacturing front, he said that India's large pool of engineering talent should be an attraction to invest in manufacturing facilities in India.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
