KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 28 (Bernama) -- MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu hopes that Malaysian businessmen will be given more opportunities by the Indian government to participate in infrastructure development projects in India.
Speaking to reporters after meeting visiting Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh here today, Samy Vellu said he took the opportunity to request for greater trade and investment cooperation between the two countries.
He said in the past 10 years, Malaysian businessmen had played a significant role in infrastructure development in India, completing projects worth about US$20 billion, but the figure had dwindled of late.
"We have made a request so that we can send more contractors to participate in more tenders issued by the Indian government," the former Works Minister said.
Accompanying Samy at the meeting were Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam, MIC deputy president Datuk G. Palanivel, vice presidents Datuk S.K. Devasamy, Datuk M. Saravanan and Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk T. Murugiah.
On Wednesday, Dr Manmohan said that India, which plans to raise its investment target in infrastructure projects to US$1 trillion, welcomed greater Malaysian participation given Malaysia's strength in the sector.
Samy Vellu said that he had travelled five times to India in the past two months, and described it as a "national duty" in a bid to talk to the Indian government and preparing grounds to open up more opportunities for Malaysian businessmen to venture into India.
"I believe the discussions will bring much benefits in the future. We also hope to be able to take part in activities that will be benificial to the country," he said.
Samy said he had also requested to Dr Manmohan to consider relaxing visa rules for Malaysian businessmen travelling to India as the current two-month visa was insufficient.
Meanwhile, Dr S. Subramaniam told reporters that presently there were about 45,000 Indian nationals working legally in Malaysia, with the majority of them in the service, construction, agriculture, plantation and manufacturing industries, while there was a sizeable of them working as professionals such as in the information and technology industries.
"We are also working with the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry to see how we can facilitate more professionals in the IT industry from India to work here, and help to strenghten our IT industry," he added.
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