Union Minister Piyush Goyal will visit San Francisco from November 13-16 to attend the various official engagements of Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

During his visit, Goyal will hold bilateral meetings with US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai and ministers from other IPEF partner countries. These meetings will focus on addressing trade barriers, promoting investments and fostering greater cooperation in areas such as technology and innovation.

The Union Minister will represent India at the IPEF Leaders’ Meeting and the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) – IPEF Investor Forum meeting on November 16. He will also represent India at the APEC Economic Leaders Engagements from November 15-16, the Ministry of Commerce & Industry said in a statement on Friday.

India has been invited to the 30th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting 2023 as a Guest Economy.

Goyal will also address a joint event, co-chaired with the US Commerce Secretary, on the “India-USA Innovation Handshake Initiative”, with the aim to lift up and connect the two sides’ dynamic startup ecosystems, address specific regulatory hurdles in the way of cooperation and promote innovation and job growth, particularly in emerging technologies.

The Union Minister will also take part in the investors’ roundtable and hold one-to-one meetings with CEOs. He will also interact with students, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, Indian diaspora and academic communities in the Bay Area, specially in the Silicon Valley to undertake focused discussions with American companies looking to invest or expand in India across sectors like electronics (including Semiconductor), technology, FinTech, etc.

IPEF seeks to strengthen economic engagement among partner countries with the goal of advancing growth, peace and prosperity in the region. The framework is structured around four pillars relating to trade, supply chains, clean economy and fair economy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the IPEF launch event along with US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and heads of other partner countries of the Indo-Pacific region on May 23 last year in Tokyo.

In the first-ever in-person Ministerial meeting in September 2022, Pillar-wise Ministerial statements were issued outlining the broad contours of text-based negotiations.

Later in December 2022, negotiations on all the four Pillar Agreements were launched and in May 2023, negotiations on the Pillar-II Agreement were substantially concluded.