More financial sector reforms needed for growth: PM
Friday, 06 October 2006, 19:30 IST
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Mumbai: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that more financial sector reforms are necessary to attract investment and to create an efficient markets so that a double-digit economic grown in India could be achieved. "We need to reform financial sector further to have a larger debt market," the prime minister said, while expressing concern over India's market for bonds and securities not taking off in the desired fashion. "We need to promote widely-held pension fund system and we need a much larger insurance sector with a higher capital base and more diverse products," he said while inaugurating the new headquarters for India's markets watchdog, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). "The capital market is not about equities alone. The bulk of transactions in the capital markets of advanced nations are in debt securities," he said, adding the debt market has not delivered the desired results in India. "If we have to achieve our growth ambitions of 8-10 percent per annum we need investments of a high order. These would be possible only by making our financial markets more efficient, more competitive and more global," he said. According to the prime minister, India may lacking the consensus needed to push economic reforms, but expressed confidence that his government will be able to garner the support based on the benefits it will bring to India. "The financial sector in India has now come of age, though there are a number of issues which need to be resolved. Indeed, it is such issues, even if they be controversial, which encourage discussion and debate," he said. Manmohan Singh also said he was happy with the progress in amending the SEBI Act of 1992 to create an appropriate fund, as also to further empower the regulator to better address all issues impacting investor interests.
Source: IANS
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