The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong on Thursday said that US brands want to see India as a manufacturing hub after the government relaxed foreign direct investment (FDI) policy in single brand retail and contract manufacturing.

Also, around 20 top American high-end apparel companies that own brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Arrow, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein met senior government functionaries in New Delhi.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18's Rituparna Bhuyan, Tara Joseph, president of the Hong Kong unit of American Chamber of Commerce, said, "American high end apparel companies will need some more time to take a decision on investing in manufacturing facilities in India."

Joseph said, "It is an opportunity for India and it is an opportunity for our brands to really investigate and see what opportunities are there in the country. If these American brands came to India, they would be thinking about long-term and large scale investments."

She further added, "So far what we are hearing from the government is initiatives to make it a one stop shop, a very easy place to come and build a vertical structure that is also sustainable and green to come and invest. The government is also showing us a lot of the different state efforts to build projects and to build industrial parks that are useful and also accessible to logistics operations whether it is ports and also airports. "

First Published:Sept 5, 2019 10:40 PM IST