India, Japan to beat US growth by ’50

Emerging economies, including India, will overtake the developed countries in economic growth by 2050, with the popularity of India and China as investment destination is rising while the attractiveness Europe and North America is slipping, says a study.

"The seven new global powers by 2050 will comprise the so-called BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China) together with Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey," says the Ernst and Young European Attractiveness Survey 2007.

These seven emerging countries would overtake the economies of the G7 countries — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United States — in terms of GDP but whether India can develop its infrastructure at pace with that of global investment remains to be seen, the survey added. The developing econo-mies will outdo the G7 if it manages to mend the loopholes regarding transparency, fairness and infrastructure development.

India’s popularity is rising as 26 per cent respondents said the country is amongst their top three preferences in 2007 whereas the figure was just 11 per cent in 2004. The survey highlights that with intensifying competitive cost pressure, companies across the world would resort to offshore services and manufacturing to lower cost and higher growth economies such as China and India.

One company in five intends to relocate all or part of its European activities outside the region and for this they look forward to the Asian countries. "China attracts the interest of 50 per cent of respondents currently undergoing a relocation search, while India is considered by 30 per cent of voters," the survey said.

Europe’s attractiveness for foreign investors declined significantly in 2007, tho-ugh it has managed to mai-ntain its lead, the survey says. However, the survey cauti-ons that the mature markets in Europe are losing their hold on investors.