U.S. President Donald Trump’s dissolution of two business advisory bodies won’t adversely impact the participation of leading American companies or top executives at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) in Hyderabad, according to a U.S. official.
Mr. Trump, on Wednesday, announced the break-up of the councils after several chief executives who were on the American Manufacturing Council quit as members and the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum broke up on its own. The CEOs resigned in protest against Mr. Trump’s response to the violence in Virginia.
“Many U.S. technology companies have deep ties in India,” the official, who did not wish to be identified, said. “They see India as a growth market,” the official said, adding that U.S. firms, particularly in the online payments sector anticipate huge opportunities due to the Indian government’s demonetisation move and the consequent push for digitisation.
The GES, which aims to help “connect American entrepreneurs and investors with international counterparts”, is a U.S. government initiative. The event will be held in South Asia for the first time when it takes place in Hyderabad, from November 28-30. Ivanka Trump, Mr. Trump’s daughter and Advisor to the President, will be heading the U.S. delegation.
Several U.S. companies plan to increase investments in India, the official said, adding the U.S. government was in the process of approaching top firms to ensure their participation in the GES 2017.
The event’s 2016 edition at Silicon Valley in the U.S. saw many leading companies including Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Cisco and Google taking part.
Incidentally, 162 companies including Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google, Intel, Microsoft, PayPal, SpaceX, Twitter, Uber and Yahoo had in April filed a brief in a U.S. Court against President Trump’s order in March on curbs against nationals from certain Muslim-majority countries regarding their entry into the U.S. — a move that the companies had criticised on the ground that it would “hinder the ability of American companies to attract talented employees, (and) increase costs imposed on business.”
The official said defence is not among the GES 2017 focus sectors as it is seen as one dominated by large companies, adding that the event instead plans to give more attention to sectors such as healthcare and financial technologies with relatively smaller firms. He said though there would be government-level talks on the sidelines of the GES 2017, it will be restricted to discussions about the event and will not have talks on outstanding issues such as Intellectual Property Rights that can be taken up at the U.S.-India Trade Policy Forum meeting.