Sources said that the meet would be addressed by the Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Maharashtra agriculture minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI) chairman and managing director KD Agarwal, Enron country manager Sanjay Bhatnagar, National Securities Depository managing director CB Vhave, Jardine Fleming India country head Robert Gibson, Prudential Asia Infrastructure Investors president Joseph Ferrigno, Securities & Exchange Board of India chairman DR Mehta and National Stock exchange managing director RH Patil.

The conference has been sponsored by the State Bank of India, governments ofAndhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, IFCI, Jardine Fleming India Securities and JP Morgan.

The meet would also discuss the competitive position of the Indian mining sector in a global context, investment opportunities in states, financing the country's infrastructure requirements - telecommunications and power sectors and software industry - for the world financial markets.

Over the past three years, India has been one of the faster-growing economies in the world, with the gross domestic product (GDP) growing at an average 7 per cent annually. The integration into the global economy during the past five years has been impressive. Among the more convincing aspects of the recent reforms have been those aimed at promoting foreign investment, both direct and indirect, according to a background paper prepared by Euromoney.

The size of the economy and population has attracted considerable interest. The focus has been particularly on infrastructure projects, which are as important to India as to the region as awhole. Issuance in the international capital markets has continued to grow at a good rate. Indian companies have issued $2.2 billion of debt in the first nine months of 1997, compared with $1.1 billion over the whole of last year.

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd and the Gas Authority of India were set to be privatised in the coming months, raising a combined total of some $1.35 billion. These offerings should consolidate the success of the attempt to sell Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the paper adds.

All Indian states compete with each other to attract foreign investment. Some locations have consistently been preferred to others, primarily owing to responsive state governments and relatively well developed infrastructure in some regions. "Now, in a bid to attract more investment, state governments are working overtime to promote infrastructure investment."

A hallmark of the government's position in its recent dealings with the international-banking and investment communities has been its flexible market-ledapproach and the speed with which it has acted. These characteristics have, in turn, led to greater confidence in the Indian economy and insulated it from the turmoil in the Asian markets, India is an appropriate destination for capital, which has shifted out of the worst-hit countries in the region.