Dow Chemicals chairman & CEO Andrew Liveris will not attend the Indo-US CEO Business Forum scheduled to be held in Washington on Tuesday. A high-level Indian delegation led by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee along with commerce minister Anand Sharma, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and top corporate leaders are attending the meeting.
?He is not attending because of his prior engagement,? Dow spokesperson said. In 1999, Dow Chemical Company bought the Union Carbide which was responsible for the world?s worst industrial disaster in 1984 — the Bhopal gas tragedy that killed about 15,000 people and injured at least five lakh others.
Dow spokesperson claimed that Liveris? absence has got nothing to do with the ongoing Bhopal controversy. ?Absolutely not and in no way related (to Bhopal controversy) as to why he cannot attend the CEO forum meeting. He already had a commitment that he could not move for this meeting otherwise he would be there,? the spokesman added. The Indo-US CEOs Forum, which was reconstituted on the eve of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh?s State visit to Washington last year, is having its second meeting in its first year.
?Tomorrow, we will have the opportunity to review the identified areas where deficiencies exits and how to improve those deficiencies,? Mukherjee said in an interactive session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry on the eve of the crucial meeting of the Indo-US CEOs Forum.
Top officials from the Obama administration including the secretary of state are expected to attend the meeting to be held at the State Department.
Mukherjee said China?s decision to make its currency, yuan, more flexible will help the world economy. ?I hope that China would address the problems in its proper perspective and what they have announced they mean it. I hope they would adopt flexibility, which will help the world economy,? he said.
?In our bilateral relationship, it is not going to have that much impact. But I do believe, as a major player in economic arena, China should take note of the concern of the world economy and have the flexible (currency),? he said.
Earlier in the day, the White House said it would be monitoring the progress on the Chinese assurance that it would be making its currency more flexible. It also said that currency, indeed, would be one of the topics of discussions during upcoming G-20 Summit in Toronto.
Mukherjee hopes that US companies would invest in India?s infrastructure sector, to bridge the funding gap in this crucial area. ?With a potential funding gap of 25-30%, needing to be bridged through innovative modes of financing,? Mukherejee said at separate meetings with the industry shortly after his arrival here on Monday.
He said there is a scope of investment worth $850 billion in infrastructure sector in India and it will go up to $2.7 trillion in the next five years, according to a statement issued by the finance ministry on Tuesday.
?There are some big, bold recommendations, that are going to take courage on both sides,? president, US India Business Council (USIBC), Ron Somers said. ?On the Indian side, we are hopeful that the Monsoon Session of Parliament can open the education sector for foreign investment and lift the FDI cap in insurance,? said Somers.
Addressing a separate gathering of senior finance executives at the Institute of International Finance in Washington, Mukherjee said the country faces three challenges?fiscal consolidation, high inflation and oil prices. Headline inflation for May provisionally crossed the double-digit level. He hoped that once it is clear that monsoon is normal, inflationary pressure would start to ease from mid-July.
Mukherjee further said a lingering debt crisis in the Eurozone could disrupt trade and lead to flight of capital from emerging markets such as India and end up derailing the fragile global economic recovery. ?It has the potential to disrupt trade and lead to financial contagion,? he said.