Giving a significant economic thrust to his two-day official visit to Germany, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Thursday asked German investors to take a slice of the big Indian market by investing in the ongoing highway project, ports and the proposed scheme of countrywide linking of rivers.

Addressing a business summit in Munich, the hub of German industry, he also had a word of caution that economic reforms in India cannot be pushed as a "shock therapy" but only through the "tonic of compromise and consensus" which supports a more equitable growth.

In his keynote address to a gathering of representatives of some of the top German companies and a high-level delegation of the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Vajpayee said the complementarities between India and Germany open up a vast range of possibilities for economic, scientific and technological cooperation.

"A fuller awareness of the mutual advantage of collaboration can play a crucial role in transforming our relations into a vibrant strategic partnership. This is the challenge for the business communities of our two countries," he said.

Inviting German investment in the new Indian projects, the prime minister said India was today creating and upgrading a network of highways connecting its major cities with smaller towns and villages.

Another ambitious, he said, is the linking of major rivers, both to optimise the use of water and for river transportation.

Ports and railways were also on India's agenda for infrastructure development. As a world leader in transportation engineering, Germany was well placed to take advantages of these opportunities, he added.

Vajpayee said there was much more that India could offer to investors, researchers, contractors or exporters from Germany.

German investors had been in India virtually since independence, he pointed out saying Siemens, Merck, Bayer and Mercedes Benz had been well-known names in India for over five decades.

"They are aware of our strengths and of the attractive returns on their investments in India. They are welcome in greater numbers and with a wider variety of value-added hi-tech ventures," Vajpayee said.

Referring to India's programme for expanding nuclear power programme, he said the country has conducted advanced research on decommissioning techniques.

Germany could source expertise and human resources in India for decommissioning nuclear power plants at very competitive prices.

Noting that German investment in India, which was about euro 200 million a year in 1990s, has declined sharply to only about euro 50 million annually, the prime minister said German business and industry should therefore take another close look at India.

The bilateral trade of around euro five billion was also growing at a moderate rate, he noted.

"There seems to be an information gap about the immense opportunities in both directions for trade and investment", he said adding, in his discussions with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and other leaders of the government a few major areas like information technology, biotechnology products, renewable energy sources and research, and development for cooperation were identified.

The Indian business community, he said, estimated the demand of the German IT industry at a staggering euro 67 billion. 

Besides the German telecom, financial services and manufacturing sectors, which are big IT consumers, and small and medium enterprises could also benefit from India's strength in information technology.

Going a step forward, Vajpayee also invited German companies to use the Indian satellites for their remote sensing, communications and research projects.

Vajpayee said the confidence of foreign investors in India was reflected in the highest-ever inflows of foreign direct investment in the last two years.

"India is today the world's fourth largest economy on purchasing power parity. Our annual average growth has been over five per cent since 1980. It is the highest achieved over a comparable period by any democracy in the world. We have managed a growth rate of around 6 per cent, even in the current uncertain economic environment," he pointed out.

Vajpayee said India's economic fundamentals remain strong and inflation was in the low single digit range. The foreign exchange reserves of over 13 months of import cover were among the world's highest.

Stating that India has one of the fastest growing telecom, insurance, and financial services markets in the world, the prime minister said: "Our strengths in information technology, biotechnology and entertainment technologies are well known. We have transparent laws and a strong tradition of an independent judiciary."