News: Indian SEZs to get $5 bn by 2007

(DNA 27/08/2006) Kuala Lumpur - India expects to attract $4-5 billion of investments in its special economic zones (SEZs) by December 2007, commerce minister Kamal Nath said in an interview on Thursday.

Nath, who is in Malaysia for talks with the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations, said he expected the zones would generate new revenue of the order of $9 billion for the government, which announced revised rules for the economic zones this week.

The zones would not be concentrated in a particular geographic zone, but spread across India, said Nath.

“These are proposals by a developer, so it’s for states to build the confidence in developers and in industries to come there,” he said.

“Investment cannot be mandated, it’s got to be attracted. You cannot drive anybody to a particular place. They must be able to attract them.”

India now has 15 SEZs, each of size 200 acres on average, which the government says have attracted investments worth Rs 2,200 crore and given employment to about 1.1 lakh people. The government has approved as many as 164 more.