Bilateral Investment Promotion & Protection Agreements Signed with 82 Countries

Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

23-November-2012 16:53 IST

Government of India has signed Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (BIPA) with 82 countries, of which BIPAs with 72 countries have come into force. The list of all the 82 countries with whom India has signed BIPA along with the text of 72 BIPAs, which are currently in force is available at http://finmin.nic.in/bipa/bipa_index.asp. These Agreements are intended to promote bilateral investment flows by assuring fair and equitable treatment to investments on post establishment basis. These agreements contain provisions relating, inter-alia, to National Treatment, Most Favoured Nation Treatment and mechanism for dispute resolution on reciprocal basis.

These Agreements require the concerned Governments to handle a dispute notice by a foreign investor from the other country, covered by the Agreement, in terms of the provisions of the Agreement, which may also entail international arbitration. In view of the dispute notices received by the Government of India recently, Government has been taking steps to handle the specific dispute notices, in terms of the provisions of the applicable Agreement and the facts of the case. The generic issues arising from the said dispute notices are also being handled appropriately.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Finance, Shri Namo Narain Meena in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

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