“Vizag is an amazing city and has immense potential to grow,” according to Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs, the U.S., John McCaslin.
He is on a maiden visit to the city as part of America Days, an annual event during which diplomats from the U.S. Consulate-General in Hyderabad and the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi are on a mission to share aspects of their education, culture, business promotion, and policy with a broad audience.
“It’s a beautiful city with world-class infrastructure,” Mr. McCaslin said during an interaction with select media, and added that they were looking at investment opportunities both from their side and from India in the U.S.
He said they were willing to explore collaborative ventures in energy, transport, sanitation, and other key sectors.
Mr. McCaslin parried a question on whether any U.S. company had evinced interest in supplying reactors to 6 x1594 MW nuclear plant proposed by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. at Kovvada near here.
To a question, Mr. McCaslin said that the Visakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor would offer lot of scope for investment.
“We have the expertise to invest in developing a freight corridor,” he said, adding that they had already proposed to the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana their preparedness to invest in the energy sector, particularly solar energy.
He said they were expecting a lot of cooperation in the pharma sector, as India was being acclaimed as the world leader in generic medicine.
“The number of Indian students going to the U.S. for higher studies has crossed the strength of China,” Mr. McCaslin said.
“Indian investments, particularly in manufacturing, IT and IT enabled services, textiles, pharma, and other fields are also growing very fast,” he said, and added that Indian investment in the U.S. was the fourth fastest growing after China, Luxembourg, and Hungary.
Consul-General, Hyderabad, Michael Mullins, and Consular Chief-Visas, U.S., Sutton Meagher, were part of the team.
