India creates thousands of jobs in the US: Hillary

The United States has said enhancing economic ties with India will create thousands of jobs for Americans, as against the general impression about the US jobs being outsourced to the South Asian country.

Addressing a luncheon meeting of the Indo-US CEOs' Forum, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton said, "Just last week Congressman Jim McDermott unveiled a report by the India-US World Affairs Institute showing that Indian investment in the US grew by an estimated 60 per cent in 2009, to over $7 billion."

"That same report indicated that trade in goods between our countries tripled between 2004 and 2008, and that since 2004 Indian acquisitions in the US have supported approximately 40,000 jobs here, with manufacturing exports to India linked to another 96,000 jobs.

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"That's great progress and it is a solid base on which to build," Clinton said.

According the report, Indian companies created nearly 60,000 jobs in the US between 2004-09 through nearly 500 investment and acquisition deals worth $26.5 billion.

During 2004-2009, 90 Indian companies made 127 greenfield investments worth $5.5 billion, and created 16,576 jobs in the US. Greenfield investments are investments made to start a new venture by constructing new operational facilities from the ground up.

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The report comes on the heels of US President Barack Obama ending tax incentives to US companies that move jobs outside the country. Instead, his government would route the incentives to those creating jobs inside the US, he had said last year.

A 2004 Goldman Sachs report had forecast that nearly 6 million US jobs would be shifted overseas to low-wage countries like India.

Clinton, who has shown personal interest in deepening of Indo-US ties, said both President Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have said numerous times in the last 16 months, the increased cooperation between the US and India is the cornerstone of our 21st century strategic partnership.