Dubai: External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha on September 5 asked the non- resident Indian (NRI) business community in the Gulf to continue their partnership with their homeland saying that investment in India was more profitable than many other countries including China.

"Investment in India earn more profit than China as many studies have shown. India had a huge pool of skilled manpower, efficient judicial system for investment protection, transparent Democracy, all of which has made the country the best place to do business," Sinha told a gathering of Indian businessmen in Dubai.

India has now emerged as an investment destination, Sinha said adding that during the last four years he had worked overtime to pull the Indian economy out of a very difficult situation, proving the prophets of doom wrong.

Choosing to speak more on India's economy and less on foreign policy, Sinha who was on his way back from the Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, said he had taken over as Finance Minister when the economy was in doldrums, sanctions in place after the 1998 nuclear blast, and the foreign exchange reserves were not comfortable.

He said at a time International Monetary Fund (IMF) could not have been approached, the government had turned to the NRIs who responded with investment worth over $ 9 billion in two bonds issued by the State Bank of India.

Since then India had not looked back and have built up a reserve of more than $ 60 billion.

"India has been totally unaffected by the economic crises in East Asia, Russia or Latin America. We have tread cautiously on the issue of convertibility," Sinha said pointing out that for NRIs and people of Indian Origin (PIOs), Rupee was fully convertible now.

"The vast Indian market is open to your investment, technology and enterprise," Sinha said and assured the gathering that his government's commitment to NRIs and PIOs have never been stronger than today.

He said that inflation during his term had also come down from double digits to less than four which was sustainable thanks to a mix of economic policies.

He conceded that energy management continued to pose difficulties and had a dig at the recent strike in Kerala against power price hike.

"I am sorry to say that Kerala government lost courage and withdrew the power price increase," Sinha said.

The only significant problem the Centre and the states faced was that of deficit but even there the borrowings that were resorted to make up were from the domestic market and not external, he said.

Sinha was presented a memento by the president of the Indian Association Khushi Khatwani. The meeting was attended by the Indian Ambassador to UAE, K C Singh and a large number of prominent members of the Indian community.

PTI