US wants to be part of India’s economic miracle: Official

Observing that the more India grows, the better it is for India, for the United States, and for the world, Biden Administration’s point person for South Asia on Thursday said that the US wants to be part of New Delhi’s economic miracle.

One of the fastest-growing major world economies for the past several years despite the global economic downturn, India, which is now a USD 3 trillion economy, has now set an ambitious goal of becoming a USD 10 trillion economy in a decade and a developed country by 2047. “We want to be part of your economic miracle,” Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu told PTI in an interview on Thursday.

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“We strongly support India’s goal to grow its economy in an inclusive way. The more India grows, the better it is for India, for the United States and for the world. A prosperous India will have more resources to help address global problems like climate change and future pandemics,” Lu said in response to a question. The United States, he said, is proud to host more than 200,000 Indian students who are studying at US universities. “In fact, just a few days ago, we have preliminary data from the Indian Ministry of Commerce to indicate our bilateral trade and goods grew by an additional seven per cent,” he said.

This helps both of the economies to expand and makes clear that there is room for much more progress, he noted. “Our discussions at the Trade Policy Forum, at the commercial dialogue, at the CEO’s Forum, helped to bring our economies closer together,” he said. “At the same time, we’re looking to deepen our cooperation on the technologies of the future, from space to artificial intelligence to quantum computing, via the Initiative for Critical Emerging Technologies that was launched in January this year. A strong and prosperous India is good for the United States. We want to be part of your economic miracle,” Lu said in response to a question.

US goods and services trade with India totalled an estimated USD 146.1 billion in 2019 and in 2022 it jumped to over USD 192 billion. This year, the United States has surpassed China to become India’s largest trading partner. President Joe Biden, when he was the vice president, during a trip to India had said that the goal of the bilateral trade should be USD 500 billion per annum. According to India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry, in fiscal 2020-21, India received the highest ever foreign direct investment (FDI) amounting to USD 81.72 billion.

The US became India’s second-largest source of FDI during 2020-21 with inflows of USD 13.82 billion. The US is one of the top 5 investment destinations for Indian FDI. There are at least half a dozen dialogue mechanisms between India and the United States to strengthen their economic ties: India-US Trade Policy Forum, India-US Commercial Dialogue, India-US CEO Forum, Information and Communications Technology, India US Economic and Financial Partnership Dialogue and Indo-Pacific Economic Framework [IPEF]. Established in 2005, the India-US Trade Policy Forum is the leading bilateral mechanism to discuss trade-related matters. India-US Commercial Dialogue focuses on cooperation in standards, ease of doing business, travel and tourism, and other important issues of commercial significance.

Established in 2005, the CEO Forum meets on the sidelines of the India-US Commercial Dialogue and its recommendations from this forum feed into the Commercial dialogue. A Joint Working Group on ICT was established in 2005 to bring together government and industry from both sides to discuss cooperation in the electronics and IT sectors. India US Economic and Financial Partnership Dialogue is led by the Finance Minister and the US Treasury Secretary. India joined the launch of the IPEF in May 2022 and is working with the 13 Partner countries to build an inclusive and flexible Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.