by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, World
NEW DELHI – Despite the uproar against Chinese products amid the face off between India and China in Ladakh, government officials say it is not possible to fully block the chinese companies due to the substantial investments from the neighboring counrty in India.
“While some measures can be taken, several Chinese investments are quite substantive. It is not possible to fully block them. A worrisome factor is that these Chinese companies have linkages of some sort with the Chinese military,” one government official was quoted by The Hindu as saying.
On June 29, the government banned 59 Chinese apps citing national security; another 47 were also put on the proscribed list later.
In June 2017, China passed a national intelligence law which gave Beijing powers over Chinese companies’ overseas investments as well. As per the Annual report of the U.S. Secretary of Defence to the Congress on the “Military and Security Developments involving the People’s Republic of China 2019”, this law requires Chinese companies, such as Huawei, ZTE, Tik Tok and others to support, provide assistance, and cooperate in China’s national intelligence work, wherever they operate.
Article 7 of the law states, “Any organisation or citizen shall support, assist and cooperate with the state intelligence work in accordance with the law… The state protects individuals and organisations that support, assist and cooperate with national intelligence work.”
The law has direct security implications for all overseas Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from China, a second official said.
Intelligence assessments have flagged some large Chinese companies with major presence in India having direct or indirect links with the PLA. This includes Xindia Steels Limited, China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC), Huawei, Alibaba and Tencent.
For instance, Xindia Steels Limited is considered one of the largest joint ventures (JV) between India and China and has commissioned a 0.8 mtpa iron ore pelletisation facility in Koppal district of Karnataka at a cost of over ₹250 crore. Its main investor is Xinxing Cathay International Group Co. Ltd. which, as per its website, is “reorganized, reconstructed and unhooked from previous production department and subordinate enterprises and institutions of the General Logistics Department of the PLA”.
Similarly, Huawei, which has generated global concern over its 5G services, was founded by Ren Zhengfei, a former deputy director of the PLA’s engineering corps in 1987. Huawei is quite popular in India and a government decision on its bid for 5G services in India is expected shortly.
Multi-million funding
CETC had in 2018 announced a $46 million investment in a 200 MW photo-voltaic manufacturing facility in Andhra Pradesh. Officials pointed out that CETC is China’s leading military electronics manufacturer and also makes Hikvision CCTV cameras.
Several CETC research institutes and subsidiaries have been added to the U.S. government’s entity list, restricting exports to them on national security grounds, officials pointed out.
CETC has been implicated by the U.S. Department of Justice in at least three cases of illegal exports and many CETC employees have also been convicted for military espionage, the second official stated.
CETC also provides technology used for human rights abuses in Xinjiang, where around one million are held in re-education camps, assessments noted.
Similarly, SAIC Motor Corporation Limited, the parent company of MG Motors, which sells MG Hector in India has also raised concerns. One of the subsidiaries of SAIC is Nanjing Automobile, which was previously a vehicle servicing unit of PLA, the official added.
Another aspect that has raised red flags is Chinese investments in Indian technology start ups. The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a U.S. congressional commission, said in its 2019 report, “The Chinese government’s military-civil fusion policy aims to spur innovation and economic growth through an array of policies and other government-supported mechanisms, including Venture Capital (VC) funds, while leveraging the fruits of civilian innovation for China’s defence sector.”
This raises a direct question mark on Chinese VC investments in India including big names like Alibaba and Tencent, the second official stated.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Business Summit, Corporate, Corporate finance, Corporate Governance, Economy, Emerging Businesses, Events, Investing, News, Politics, SMEs
Gandhinagar : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that his government had made doing business in India easier, cheaper, faster and smarter with his term accounting for almost 45 per cent of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) that the country received in the last 18 years.
Speaking at the inaugural function of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2019 here, he said India was now one of the most open countries for FDI with over 90 per cent approvals put on the automatic route.
“In the last four years, we have received FDI worth $263 billion. This is 45 per cent of the FDI received in last 18 years,” Modi told the gathering.
He said India was among the top 10 FDI destinations.
Modi, who is on a three-day visit to his home state to throw open his pet biennial Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, said the India of today was a land of “immense opportunities” being the only place that offered democracy, demography and demand.
“Fifty cities in India are ready to build metro rail systems. We have to build 50 million houses. The requirement of road, rail and waterways is enormous. We want world class technologies to achieve our goal in a faster and cleaner way. India is thus, a land of immense opportunities.” he said.
The Prime Minister said the challenge for India, as in most emerging economies, was to grow horizontally as well as vertically to ensure that the benefits of development spread to regions and communities that have lagged behind while also meeting enhanced expectations in terms of quality of life, quality of services and quality of infrastructure.
“We are well aware that our achievements, here in India, will directly impact one sixth of humanity.”
Modi said his government had removed the barriers which were preventing India from achieving its full potential and now it was ready for business like never before.
The government has made doing business easier. cheaper, faster and smarter, he said.
“In the last four years, we have jumped 65 places in the global ranking of World Bank’s Doing Business Report. From 142 in 2014 to 77 now, but we are still not satisfied. I have asked my team to work harder so that India is in the top 50 next year.
“We have also made doing business cheaper. The historic implementation of Goods and Services Tax and other measures of simplification and consolidation of taxes have reduced transaction costs and made processes efficient.
“We have also made doing business faster through digital processes, online transactions and single point inter-faces,” he said.
He said his government had made doing business smarter by insisting on IT based transactions and digital payments including direct transfer of government benefits.
Modi added that he understood that being a young nation, India needs to create job opportunities and better infrastructure, which are both linked with investments.
“Therefore, in recent years, there has been unprecedented focus on manufacturing and infrastructure,” he said.
Listing the achievements of his government, he said for the first time, India had become a net exporter of electricity, had installed transmission lines at an unprecedented pace and had doubled the speed of road construction with rural road connectivity now at 90 per cent.
“At 7.3 per cent, the average GDP growth, over the entire term of our government, has been the highest of any Indian government since 1991. At the same time,the rate of inflation at 4.6 per cent is the lowest for any Indian government since 1991, when India began its process of liberalisation,” he said.
Modi had conceptualised the summit as Gujarat Chief Minister in 2003 to position the state as an ideal investment destination after the 2002 riots.
—IANS
