US secretary of state John Kerry said that Gujarat can gain significantly from the improved Indo-US ties as the state has already taken several initiatives to boost business confidence. Wrapping his two-day visit to Gujarat, Kerry told media persons that creating confidence among business community would be the key to attracting investments here.
“I am impressed by what I have seen here.... The number of businesses, enthusiasm, energy and excitement of people to engage in entrepreneurial activities not just with the US but worldwide. It's palpable... you can feel it... you can touch it. I think Gujarat, obviously, has an opportunity to gain significantly, because Gujarat has already been taking initiative, with respect to this,” Kerry said. To a question, Kerry said, “Prime Minister Modi made his reputation here, in Gujarat, and he did it by building efficiency, by trying to make government make decisions faster, by trying to streamline bureaucracy, trying to simplify and get decisions made. If that can be extrapolated to the rest of India and, indeed, to other dealings with other countries, we all benefit. Everybody benefits.”
Kerry said that it was important to create confidence to attract business. “We all know that business wants confidence in their decision whether or not to allocate capital. Capital works best with confidence.” Kerry said that the PM has made it very clear that he wants to move rapidly and do things that haven't been done till now. The focus of the Modi Government on streamlining and moving things forward, increasing transparency, increasing accountability, moving to make decisions faster, all of these things are going to have a profound impact on people's decisions as to whether or not to invest, and how fast business community will be able to grow.” he said.
