New Delhi, May 8 (KNN) Raising the pitch for ‘Make in India’ campaign, Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce, has called the small and medium Korean companies to set up manufacturing bases in India stating that “we can create ‘plug and play’ facilities for them”.
  
Kant today exhorted Korean companies to look ahead of the curve, invest and set up manufacturing and R&D bases in India.
 
Speaking at a business meeting here today on ‘Make in India: Contribution of Korean Companies’, organized by industry body FICCI, Korea International Trade Association (KITA) and Korean Chamber of Commerce India (Kocham India), Kant said, “The future for Korean companies is not in Korea. It is in India both for manufacturing for the domestic market and for export.”
 
Korean companies, he added, would do well to drop anchor in India now as three to four years from now the growing Indian economy would have attracted large and small companies from across the developed world and it would be too late to scout for manufacturing opportunities then.
 
He said that India was focusing on manufacturing, digital technologies and skill development and the three programmes will converge and integrate with one another.
 
“We are not just looking East, we are acting East, the Indian economy is growing by 7 per cent and in the long term, GDP is expected to grow between 9 per cent and 10 per cent.”
 
Jyotsna Suri, President, FICCI while addressing at the event pointed out that Korea was one of the first countries to realize the potential of India as a manufacturing destination. Korean investment in India is concentrated mainly in the manufacturing sector which accounts for 86 per cent, with wholesale and retail trade 6 per cent, construction 1.2 per cent and financial and insurance activities 1.3 per cent. (KNN Bureau)