By Manoj Kumar
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India is not re-thinking the issue of allowing Chinese investments into the country, Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday.
Earlier in July, India’s Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran said in the government’s annual economic survey that New Delhi should focus on direct investments from China to boost its exports and help keep India’s growing trade deficit with Beijing in check.
“There is no rethinking at present to support Chinese investments in the country,” the minister told reporters in New Delhi.
The economic survey recommendations are not binding on the government, Goyal said.
Following clashes in the remote Himalayan border in 2020 between the two nuclear armed nations, India tightened scrutiny on investments from Chinese companies.
India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, however, had backed Nageswaran’s suggestion to allow more Chinese investment into the country.
The trade minister’s comments follow a Reuters report last week that said India may ease restrictions on Chinese investment in non-sensitive sectors like solar panels and battery manufacturing.
(Reporting by Manoj Kumar, writing by Swati Bhat, editing by Sudipto Ganguly and Raju Gopalakrishnan)