The UPA Government will soon unveil a national manufacturing policy that is aimed at attracting overseas investments and generating employment for the youth, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said here on Friday.
Delivering the keynote address at the National Conference and Annul Session 2011 of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here, Mr. Sharma said all inter-ministerial and stakeholders' consultations had been completed and hoped that the new policy would be put for approval soon. “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will soon chair the meeting to approve the draft of the National Manufacturing Policy and hopefully it would be cleared for implementation,'' he added.
The government aims at increasing the share of manufacturing sector from 16-17 per cent to 25-26 per cent of the GDP by 2020. Manufacturing contributes over 80 per cent in overall industrial production. Under the upcoming policy, the government has proposed to set up integrated greenfield mega-investment zones to attract global investment and latest technologies.
The Commerce Minister said that increasing the manufacturing share in the economy was a priority as millions of skilled workforce was expected to join the segment in the near future.
The new policy would also help attract more foreign direct investment into the country, he added.
New export strategy
Referring to the continued growth in exports and the new strategy of the government, Mr. Sharma said the strategy paper on exports, which aims at doubling exports to $450 billion by 2014, would be given a formal shape soon.
Exports this fiscal are likely to increase to $235 billion from $178.6 billion in 2009-10.
On the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a new international treaty being framed by a group of developed nations, he said India would not accept any such attempts to discuss intellectual property rights outside the multilateral WTO framework.
India was strongly opposing this pact as it would have far-reaching implications for non-members of ACTA. Countries such as the U.S., the EU, Japan, Australia, Canada and New Zealand were discussing the pact. “Few countries will group together and try to change what is and will always be a multilateral regime called the TRIPS agreement. If it has to re-visited at any stage in future, it will be only in multilateral forum, the WTO, it cannot be done outside,'' he added.
