India opens govt procurement to foreign companies

New Delhi, Dec 22 (KNN) After years of protecting the interest of medium and small scale industry, the Indian government has considered to allow access to its public tenders to foreign companies.

GoI has given open access to public tenders in the free trade agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), reported Mint.

It is to note that medium and small scale industry heavily rely on government tenders for business.

Following the agreement with UAE, Australia is eyeing India’s USD 500 billion procurement market.

The inclusion of public procurement in the UAE agreement marked a first for India.

Australia, which too is negotiating a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), will be pushing for Australian companies to be allowed to compete with Indian ones for tenders floated by central government departments and ministries for goods and services.  (KNN Bureau)