Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and Chancellor of Austria, H.E. Mr. Karl Nehammer, jointly addressed a group of leading Austrian and Indian CEOs from diverse sectors including infrastructure, automobile, energy, engineering and start-ups today.

Both leaders acknowledged the role played by the industry leaders in strengthening bilateral relations and promoting economic cooperation between India and Austria. The leaders noted that trade and investment between the two countries has been increasing over the years and called for realizing the full potential of the India-Austria partnership through greater collaboration.

Prime Minister called on the Austrian business stakeholders to look at the fast-unfolding opportunities in India, as the country moves to become the third largest economy in the world over the next few years. He noted that India had made transformative progress in the last ten years, and would continue on the same path given its strengths of political stability, policy predictability and its reform oriented economic agenda. He emphasized on the steps taken by Government to improve Ease of Doing Business that was attracting global majors to India. Talking about Indian economic growth and transformation, he noted India’s success in the field of start-ups, in creation of next generation infrastructure, and its commitment to forge ahead on the green agenda. He mentioned that the start-up bridge set up between India and Austria would yield substantial results. In this regard, he suggested that the two countries should come together and organize a joint hackathon. He further spoke about the success of Digital Public Infrastructure in the country and measures taken to improve connectivity and logistics.

Given India’s strengths, Prime Minister urged Austrian majors to leverage Indian economic landscape for high-quality and cost effective manufacturing under MAKE IN INDIA programme both for domestic and international market, and as a global supply chain destination. In this context, he spoke about India’s Production Linked Incentive scheme to attract global manufacturing companies in the fields of semiconductors, medical devices, solar PV cells, among others. He noted that India’s economic strengths and skills and Austrian technology were natural partners for business, growth and sustainability.

He invited Austrian businesses to utilize the investment opportunities in India and be a part of India’s stellar growth story.

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