India to unveil National Manufacturing Policy

Friday, 29 October 2010, 17:06 IST
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New Delhi: Concerned over the low share of manufacturing sector in the GDP, India will soon unveil a National Manfuacturing Policy to push it to 25 percent of the GDP by 2020 from the present 17 percent. The new policy will be moved before the Union Cabinet soon, Commerce and Industy Minister Anand Sharma told journalists accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his visit to Hanoi. "This is major concern for India. When we want to be a major player in the manufacturing sector, we are concerned about the share of manufacturing sector in the overall GDP," he said. He said the share of the manufacturing sector had remained close to 17 percent, where it was in 1991 in terms of percentage, whereas all the other economies - emerging and developed - don't have manufacturing's share at less than 25-26 percent of their GDP. "Our objective is to take it to 25 percent by 2020. That is why we are coming out with National Manufacturing Policy," the Minister said, adding "We intend to move the Cabinet note soon". He said the intention was to ensure integrated manufacturing zone development, particularly green field industrial townships. "These mega investment and manufacturing zones, we hope, will attract not only investment but also technologies and hubs of collaborations and innovation," Sharma said. "There is going to be a wave of new technologies, with clean development technologies and partners," he said, adding discussions in this regard have made significant progress with Germany, Singapore, Japan and many others.
Source: PTI