India and the US have signed an Investment Incentive Agreement (IIA) to enhance investment support provided by the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) in India, which shall further help in India’s development. This IIA supersedes the agreement signed between the two countries in the year 1997.

The agreement has been signed to keep pace with the additional investment support programmes, offered by the DFC, such as debt, equity investment, investment guaranty, investment insurance or reinsurance, feasibility studies for potential projects and grants, the Indian Prime Minister’s Office said in a media release.

India and the US have signed an Investment Incentive Agreement (IIA) to enhance investment support provided by US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) in India, which shall further help in India’s development. It supersedes the agreement signed in the year 1997. It has been signed to keep pace with additional investment support programmes.

Significant developments have taken place since the signing of the earlier IIA in 1997 including the creation of a new agency called DFC, a development finance agency of the US government, as a successor agency of the erstwhile Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) after the enactment of a recent legislation of US, the BUILD Act 2018.

The agreement is the legal requirement for DFC, to continue providing investment support in India. DFC or their predecessor agencies are active in India since 1974 and have so far provided investment support worth $5.8 billion of which $2.9 billion is still outstanding. Proposals worth $4 billion are under consideration by DFC for providing investment support in India. DFC has provided investment support in sectors such as COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing, healthcare financing, renewable energy, SME financing, financial inclusion, infrastructure etc.

The IIA was signed yesterday by Vinay Kwatra, foreign secretary, government of India, and Scott Nathan, chief executive officer, DFC, in Tokyo, Japan.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)