India calls for Chinese investment

India is calling for Chinese investment especially in its infrastructure sector, where the government is planning to build projects that will cost $1 trillion in the next five years, the consul general of the Consulate General of India in Guangzhou said at the opening ceremony of the India Calling China Business Partnership Conference.

"China is India's biggest trade partner. However, the cumulative bilateral investment between two of the world's fastest-growing economies was less than $1 billion in 2012. The volume is too small, and we hope to scale it up to $100 billion in the coming five years," K Nagarj Naidu, the consul general, told China Daily.

Niranjan Hiranandani, president of the Indian Merchants' Chamber, highlighted railways as the focus and emphasized that India needs China's expertise, given that China has built the largest high-speed rail network in the world.

"Now we have Chinese investment in the power sector, but we need to expand it to other areas as well," said Hiranandani.

He took the metro project in Mumbai, the South Asian country's biggest port and capital of Maharashtra State, as an example. The project is expected to cost $3 billion.

"If we can draw Chinese investment for the project, it could be the biggest-ever Chinese investment we've got," he said.

To attract Chinese investors, the Maharashtra State government may launch preferential policies such as tax exemptions, which now Chinese investors in the Indian textile industry are already able to get.