Hyderabad, Jul 1 (KNN) In India, the small and medium businesses (SMBs) growth is strong, Facebook chief operating officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg has said adding Indian economy has immense potential to create jobs and drive growth, especially with its huge base of SMBs.

“In India, the SMB growth is strong. And internet provides more growth stories to SMBs. People are connecting to people and getting more customers and that’s what leads to economic growth,” she said.

Sandberg, who also served as Chief of Staff for the US Treasury Department under President Bill Clinton, and as Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google, is the first from Facebook’s headquarters to visit India on an official trip.

“The over USD 2 trillion (Rs120 lakh crore) Indian economy has immense potential to create jobs and drive growth, especially with its huge base of small and medium businesses (SMBs),” Facebook,  which has already crossed 100 million average monthly users in the country, COO said here yesterday.

India has the world’s third largest internet user base with over 200 million users and over 100 million Indians are on Facebook.

During her India trip, Sandberg will also be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi,  select small and medium enterprises, advertising and media agencies, women entrepreneurs and women representatives from industry bodies.

“India has the potential to become the largest economy in the world. And if you look at economic growth, jobs are a hard situation all over the world. From the US to developing markets, everyone is concerned about jobs.”

“India is Facebook’s second largest market, fastest growing market, fastest growing Internet connectivity in APAC. It is of high priority for us,” Sandberg added.

Micro, small and medium businesses contribute nearly 8 per cent of India’s gross domestic product, 45 per cent of the manufacturing output and 40 per cent of exports. (KNN/SD)