India assured global retail giants Walmart and Metro that its reforms agenda was well on course and the decision to put on hold Foreign Direct Investment in multi-brand retail is “just a pause,” forced by compulsions of coalition politics.
This assurance was given by Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma when he met Walmart president Doug McMillon and Germany-based Metro Group's board member Frans W.H. Muller on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum meeting.
This is for the first time that senior management of the United States and German retailers met any Minister after the Indian government suspended the controversial decision to open FDI in multi-brand retail on November 24.
Mr. Sharma said the decision to open 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail “could not be implemented because of the compulsions of coalition politics as also partisan opposition.”
