Thursday, February 3 2005 21:55 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flow into India will treble to $ 15 billion in 2004-05 as against a mere $ 5.6 billion in the previous year.

Indicating this, official sources told reporters that a sizeable amount is likely to come into the infrastructure sector.

The indication came a day after the Government announced a hike in FDI cap in the telecom sector. The Government has already hiked the FDI cap in civil aviation sector from 40 to 49 per cent. It has also promised to hike FDI cap in insurance sector from 26 per cent to 49 per cent.

The sources said from Korea alone FDI flow was expected to be as high as $ 5 billion dollars in the coming months.

This is for the first time that FDI flow is expected to be in double digits of billion dollars even though the Government has been striving for an annual target of $ 10 billion for the last few years.

Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, who returned after attending the World Economic Forum meeting at Davos, said India has for the first time come on to the radar screen of foreign investors.

Nath, who headed a 60-member strong Indian business delegation to Davos, said there was a lot of interest in India among multinational CEOs and several pharma companies were looking at India for investments, particularly in research and development after the new patent regime.