NEW DELHI: Asian Development Bank president Takehiko Nakao commended India for opening up on Thursday, saying the Narendra Modi government is delivering on the Prime Minister ’s promise to turn red tape into a red carpet for investors. On his second visit to the country in six months, Nakao listed faster environment clearances for projects, increased foreign investment limits in many sectors and land acquisition law amendments as major achievements, while pointing out that many of these have been effected through ordinances and need to be enshrined as permanent laws.ADB officials told ET that when Nakao had met Modi in August, the Prime Minister had told him India would have made progress on removing hurdles to investment by the time of his next visit. "I think it is happening," Nakao said in an exclusive interview to ET hours before a meeting with Modi. “Prime Minister Modi’s reform agenda has progressed as he promised and the international community as a whole, especially the private sector, gives a high score to the Indian government ,” he said, pointing out specific areas of progress.“The fiscal management has been rather sound… On the reforms front, so many things have been done, including subsidy cut for diesel, clearance for environment is accelerated, and land law is now being amended and they have started serious discussion about the introduction of a goods and services tax (GST),” he said, adding that there was greater macroeconomic stability and the growth outlook had improved. The bank had earlier sharply raised its FY16 growth forecast for the country to 6.3 per cent from 5.5per cent on the back of this optimism. Like others, he also sees challenges in making the emergency decrees permanent.“Many of them (reforms) are still based on ordinances instead of laws. So to convince investors maybe they need permanent laws,” he said, articulating a widespread view that while the ordinances reinforce the government’s commitment to reforms, iinvestors are likely to wait for them to be passed by parliament. He also called for greater focus on execution to deliver outcomes.“The smart cities initiative for instance--they must make ideas more concrete,” he said, adding that some ideas still need clarification.As for the wider continent, he said that while the rest of the world was worried about a slowdown, it was not a concern in Asia and the region is expected to grow 6.2per cent this year compared with 6.1per cent last year. The expected interest rate increase in the US was not a worry for the region.“Increasing of interest rate by the United States reflects a stronger American economy, stronger financial sector, so why do many people need to worry about this slight and gradual increase in interest rates by the Fed,” he said, adding that it could cause some market fluctuation but wouldn’t have a major impact.He also did not see a Chinese slowdown having any major impact, except for commodities exporters to the country, pointing out that the economy there was still growing at over 7per cent.“The slowdown of resource intensive growth of China has a certain impact on the commodity based economy in Asia or in any other place,” he said, adding that some sectors such as real estate could be affected but the overall impact will not be big as China was making adjustments by boosting consumption and focusing on the services economy. “I am not too worried about a slowdown in China… It may be slowing but it is not worrisome,” he said.He said investors were looking for newer investment opportunities beyond China because the wages there were increasing and India is a big market now. “Many people reimgard India as a big market because of growth,” he said. “India’s reforms, growth and democratic transition are an important part of very positive stories about Asia,” he said. India should be part of a production network in South and Southeast Asia to enhance competitiveness. In this context, he said the Make in India initiative could help the country attract more foreign capital.“Make in India is more a promotion of industry by removing hurdles... It is crucial to invite FDI (foreign direct investment),” he said, adding that this would not be in conflict with other manufacturers in the region such as China, Japan or South Korea as they were at different levels on the value chain.