Within days of India joining the nuclear commerce fraternity, business groups from both the US and UK told the government they looked forward to deepening trade relationships on the back of the deal. David Bohigian, assistant secretary for market access & compliance in the US department of commerce, told FE that civilian nuclear opportunities in India was a $100-billion market and "US firms certainly wanted to be part of that".
Bohigian was speaking at a conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), where he said the US intends to make India a full partner of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG), while in return being a part of India's procurement and deployment of nuclear-related technologies. "US President George Bush and the administration would continue to work to make India a full partner in this group, which we think is crucial from a strategic, political, economic and energy standpoint," Bohigian said. Speaking at another venue, Sharon Bamford, chief of the UK India Business Council-a forum for the promotion of bilateral business-said, "We are absolutely delighted because the UK had supported (the NSG waiver) all the way through. There is a great opportunity to partner with India. The reality is that it will also bring India closer to the US, France and Russia." The council opened its India office in New Delhi on Monday. The UK government is also setting up an office of nuclear development programmes to ensure an effective nuclear supply chain. British industrial groups would like to collaborate with Indian industries for this, said Andrew Cahn, chief executive of UK Trade & Investment, a government arm that helps UK companies in international markets and assists overseas investments in the UK. Cahn also hoped that the process of economic reforms in India would be speeded up. In Mumbai, Frank Wisner, former US ambassador to India, said American companies would benefit a lot if the US Congress passed the civilian nuclear deal (aka the 123 Agreement) during the remaining term of the current Bush administration. Passage of the agreement was crucial to allowing American companies to invest in India, as many of them are blocked from doing so because of the nuclear embargo. Bohigian told the CII event, "The next step is for Congress to consider how to move forward on the Hyde Act and to bring India and US into close collaboration in nuclear energy, which is a key component of India's future energy growth and clean energy. This is important for US companies to participate in this market". "As for timeline, I leave that to the Indian government to set their deployment schedule and hope that we can be part of that procurement and deployment of technologies," he said. The official said that when one looks at the energy map of 2020 and beyond, "certainly nuclear has a key role to play in India's growth, which we welcome". He said the US has many leading companies in the nuclear field, like General Electric and Westinghouse, but many other companies and major suppliers can be part of the prosperity that this will help bring to India http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Global-businesses-keen-to-build-Nsupply-chain/359045/0 ekamber The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes. ---Churchill --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Kences1" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/kences1?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
