The COO of social media giant Facebook has insisted that it’s only a matter of time until the Indian economy becomes the world’s biggest – and her company intends to get in at ground-level.
Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg has stated that India could eventually become the world’s biggest and most important economy. Currently considered something of an up and coming player still deep into its development stages, the social media COO sees a huge and incredibly bright future for the Indian economy.
Valued in excess of $2 trillion and with an extraordinary abundance of small to medium-size businesses, Sandberg believes it’s only a matter of time until growth in India sees the country’s economy rival and perhaps surpass those of current world-leaders.
“India has the potential to become the largest economy in the world,” she said.
“And if you look at economic growth, particularly recently, jobs is a very hard situation all over the world. From the US to developing markets, everyone is very concerned about jobs,”
“And majority of the growth, as I understand it, is certainly here, certainly in the US. In most countries I have visited, SMBs are the way to growth.”
She also stated that the key to economic development was ongoing ‘entrepreneurship’ in order to continue creating the businesses that ultimately create the jobs.
“Individuals are creating businesses and employing other people, and in India, SMB growth is strong,” she added.
“And Internet provides more growth stories to SMBs. People are connecting to people and getting more customers and that’s what leads to economic growth.”
Recent figures have been somewhat less optimistic, with economic growth in India having fallen below the 5% over the past couple of year. Nevertheless, business leaders expect to see a strong rebound over the coming months and years with growth expected to improve well beyond the 6% level by the end of this year alone.
Sandberg concluded by confirming her and Facebook’s interest in getting in at ground-level with India’s projected economic climb to power.