Finance minister P Chidambaram, accompanied by his ministerial colleagues Kamal Nath and Praful Patel, will represent India at the World Economic Forum at Davos from January 23-27 and is expected to hard sell India story to global investors at the skiing resort of Switzerland. Besides the central ministers, Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and over 50 Indian corporate honchos will rub shoulders with who’s who of international political and business leaders.Finance minister will address a special session on India’s International Agenda, where he is expected to ask investors from the US, Japan and European countries to invest in India, especially in the infrastructure sector, estimated to require $475 billion in the next 5 years. Chidambaram’s views on global credit crunch and the impact on emerging economies are likely to draw interest of top CEOs from both manufacturing and services sectors. Microsoft Corp chairman Bill Gates and Dell chief executive Michael Dell will be among the 1,370 top level corporate executives in Davos, according to organisers. Among the Indian corporate leaders, Bharti Airtel Group chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani, ICICI Bank CEO and MD KV Kamath, Bajaj Auto chief Rahul Bajaj will also be present there. US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and British prime minister Gordon Brown will also attend the Davos meeting which will have climate change, terrorism and the global credit crunch as the key themes of discussion. The annual meeting is attended by the 27 heads of state or government, besides UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon and heads of other international organisations. Official sources said commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath is likely to hold parleys with European Union trade commissioner Peter Mandelson and ministers from key WTO partners like Brazil on the Doha round of trade talks.Chidambaram is also expected to participate in the discussions on Asia on Global Stage and Fears of US Slowdown besides Financial Markets sessions. Indian economy growing close to 9 per cent and presents an attractive destination of investment both in the stock market and FDI in the wake of slowdown in US market and signs of sluggish growth in the Euro zone.
