We offer market. We offer talent. We have done reforms. Come and invest in India, with a message of this kind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans to woo global investors at the World Economic Forum in Davos. During his 24-hour visit, Modi will deliver the inaugural address at the event on January 23 and will be the first PM in 20 years to travel to Davos for the WEF. The last time an Indian PM was at WEF was in 1997.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) termed PM's visit as "short" but "focused" with intentions to urge the world business community to engage with India. "The central message the Prime Minister will give is that India is open and ready to do business in a big way. We want to tell the world to come and invest in India. PM's message will be about India being an economy that can be engine of global growth. We want others to participate in our growth and we want to participate in others' growth as well," said Vijay Gokhale, Secretary (Economic Relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs.
He added that Indian economy has expanded significantly since the last time an Indian Prime Minister went to Davos. "My sense is that PM wanted things to change on the ground before speaking about them. We have already opened our economy and carried out various reforms ," Gokhale added while talking about the reason behind PM's visit to WEF this year.
The five-day WEF Annual Meeting 2018 beginning on January 22 will be attended by 70 head of States. Besides, 38 heads of major international organisations such as the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, will be present.
PM, who reaches Davos on January 22 night, will host a round table dinner for 60 top CEOs of the world, including 20 from India. These will include CEOs of Airbus, Hitachi, BAE Systems, IBM etc. From India several top business heads including Indra Nooyi, Sundar Pichai, Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, Rahul Bajaj, Chanda Kochhar, Uday Kotak, Naresh Goyal, Anand Mahindra, Salil Parekh, Sunil Mittal, Azim Premji, Ravi Ruia, lakshmi Mittal and Sajjan Jindal will be among those attending the roundtable.
Besides, PM will also have an interaction with 120 members of the investor community at WEF on January 23 which will include heads of General Motors, Salesforce and Royal Dutch Shell, Nestle and JP Morgan.
In addition India will also host a special reception for the WEF members, where 1,500 people are expected. "We will showcase India's progress while also giving a taste of Indian cuisine as well as of Indian culture and heritage," said Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). India is also organising Yoga training sessions for the delegates during the WEF.
Besides PM, there will be six Union Ministers will address three sessions on January 24. Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu will have nine sessions over three days, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will have five sessions, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal will attend ten, Mos in PMO and DONER Jitendra Singh will have three and MoS MEA M J Akbar will attend two sessions of discussions. Finance Minister Arun Jaitey will also meet substantial number of people.
In addition to the keynote address, Modi will also have bilateral meeting with Swiss President Alain Berset. During the bilateral meeting with the Swiss President, negotiations on a bilateral investment protection pact and proposed Free Trade Agreement will figure prominently. Besides, there will be some pull asides meetings too, details of which are being worked out. MEA ruled out any possibility of meetings with Pakistan PM, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, or the President of United States, Donald Trump.