NEW DELHI, December 9: Reflecting the overall tone of foreign investors at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meet in the capital today, Percy Barnevik, chairman of Investor AB of Sweden said that it was very frustrating that though Indians knew exactly what had to be done, they did very little of this.

Barnevik, whose group has major holdings in companies like Saab, Astra, ABB, Ericsson and Electrolux, was reacting to Finance Minister P Chidambaram's speech on the policies India needed to embrace if it was to enter the 21st century as a modern, powerful, competitive Asian power.

Barnevik pointed to the fact that while India seemed to be happy enough to compare its progress with that of the last six years, what it should really be looking at is how other countries in the world have fared in the same period, and the changes they've made. "Things are happening in India, but too slow, and without too much depth."

If India has cut import tariffs to 30 per cent, China has cut them down to 10 per cent. So while India gets $2.5 billion of foreign investment, China is getting $42 billion. And why talk of China alone, Barnevik said, Poland is expecting foreign investment of $18 billion by 2000. The same story holds true for much of Eastern Europe and Russia. "What's equally important", Barnevik added, "is that the conditions which help boost foreign investment are also those that give a boost to local investment."

Earlier, Chidambaram told the audience that India had a lot to learn from the Asian success story. These included encouraging high savings, complete opening up the economy and adopting new technology aggressively. To try and convince worried investors that the reforms would not get affected by the current political crisis, Chidambaram told the audience, the current phase was one of `dynamic instability'. A phase which would force political parties to come out clearly with their stand on economic reforms. "No longer will the people accept empty slogans, ambivalent and meaningless election manifestos."

Given the tone of Barnevik's presentation which followed Chidambaram's, and the questions which followed afterwards, it's not too clear that the worried investors bought the reassurance.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.