The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said that even though the southern region performed well on many economic parameters, in terms of GDP growth, there has been a slowdown as compared to other States.
T T Ashok, Chairman CII, Southern Region further said southern States should adopt a more aggressive growth model through road shows and investor meets for development.
“The reasons for slower growth was due to shortage of talented manpower, shortage of basic infrastructure components like power, roads, ports, logistics and housing, which in recent years, have not kept pace with the demand,” Mr. Ashok told reporters, after unveiling the CII Plan titled ‘South India 2020-Accelerate Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development’.
He also said CII would partner with the State governments towards promoting greater investment flows and economic growth.
“In the last five years, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh clocked a GDP growth of 13.9 per cent as against the national average of 15.2 per cent, with Gujarat, Haryana and Bihar topping with 17.8 per cent, 17.5 per cent and 16.1 per cent respectively,” he explained.
According to him, southern region fared well in certain areas like IT/ITES sector, which contributed $ 45 billion, textile $ 30 billion, auto/components $ 28 billion and health-care $ 20 billion during 2005-10.
Mr. Ashok said the cluster-based and sustainable development approach will be the best suitable method for the region.
He opined that clusters for auto components, textiles and solar energy sectors may come up in Tamil Nadu, while bio-technology, pharma, natural gas-based industries and specialty chemicals clusters in Andhra Pradesh and tourism in Kerala and IT/ITES in Karnataka.
