FIIA offers help to speed up FDI-assisted projects

Rajeev Jayaswal

New Delhi, Aug 31: The Foreign Investment Implementation Authority (FIIA) in the industry ministry has written to over 300 companies holding foreign direct investment approvals of above Rs 100 crore each, offering help in faster implementation of their projects.

Going a step further, the authority has written letters to companies extending its help to facilitate quick translation of foreign direct investment (FDI) approvals into expeditious implementation.

“We have written letters to 330 companies, the approval holders of major FDI projects, offering our help to resolve any difficulty encountered by them in obtaining necessary clearances from the government departments both at Centre and state levels,” an official in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) said.

Mega FDI proposals have been defined as projects involving investment of over Rs 100 crore, he said. FIIA has also sent letters to the apex industry associations asking them to advice and encourage their members to take up any pending issue of implementation of FDI approval with the authority. FIIA has also assured companies as well as industry associations that any case referred to the authority will be responded promptly.

FIIA was constituted to facilitate quick translation of FDI approvals into implementation and provide one-stop after-care service to foreign investor by helping them obtain necessary approvals, sort out operational problems and meet with various government agencies to find solution to problems as ell as maximising opportunities through a partnership approach.

According to a source in Ministry of Commerce & Industry, a meeting of FIIA took place on Friday, which was attended by DIPP secretary V Govindarajan, joint secreatary MS Srinivasan and some company representatives. “FIIA has discussed investment related issues with individual companies,” according to a source. Among individual companies present in the meeting were CEAT and ABB.

There has been poor realisation of FDI during the first four months of 2001. It has fallen to 46.98 per cent of the total approved FDI
proposals during the period.

While government cleared 640 FDI proposals involving Rs 11,909.76 crore in January-April 2001, the actual inflow was only Rs 5,595.61 crore during the period, according to a ministry of commerce and industry source.