The Indo-French Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Northern Region recently took the initiative to organize a breakfast meeting with the Planning Commission of India for representatives of French companies in India on the 7th of March 2007. The objective was to create a platform for French companies to discuss various opportunities that exist in India.

Dr Kirit Parekh, Member of the Planning Commission, was the Chief Guest and Keynote Speaker. He shared his views on various issues raised by the French participants

• Status of the Public Private Partnership model for the Water Sector to be developed in India
  
  
• Improvements expected in the foreseeable future: banking, multipliers, opening to non-direct offsets related to India's Offset policy introduced in 2005
  
  
• Views on continuity of present growth when infrastructures are not here to sustain such a develpment. Situation of Gurgaon for instance (very little electricity, no water, no water post treatement, very bad road infrastructure,....)
  
  
• Views on financial sector with regard to 11th Five Year Plan
  
  
• In the banking sector, views on the Single Borrowing Limit ( SBL ) under RBI guidelines, which restricts banks to lend to a single entity up to 20 % of its capital in India only. It definitively limits the banks availability to be involved in large onshore lending requirements such as Ultra Mega Power Projects
  
  
• India's consideration on crude or LPG, natural gas storage for strategic and commercial requirement
  
  
• pro/cons for keeping up the trend of opening the FDI (insurance, retail, services such as law firms and auditors, real estate etc)
  
  
• reforms in Transmission & Distribution (T&D) segment, are significantly improving the T & D in this country

The event was attended by the Ambassador of France to India and twenty other CEOs.