New manufacturing policy soon

“We have more or less finalised the new manufacturing policy. Our consultation with almost all stake holders are complete. We have requested the Prime Minister to hold a meeting on finalising the policy document,” Commerce & Industry Minister Anand sharma said while addressing the CII National Conference and Annual Session here.

“We want to build up full fledged consensus on the new manufacturing policy so that it can be implemented without any hassle,” he said.

He indicated that the policy would be designed in a way to attract green-field investment into cutting edge technology, and include comprehensive measures that address industry concerns. It would aim at making India emerge as the technology workshop of the world by becoming a global leader in high technology manufacturing, besides, primarily aiming to reduce the compliance burden of the industry and putting India on the world map as a manufacturing nation, Sharma said.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukhjeree in his 2011-12 Budget speech had indicated that the government would come out with a manufacturing policy, which would bring down the compliance burden on the industry through self-regulation and help make Indian industry globally competitive.

The government aims to take the share of manufacturing sector, which contributes over 80 per cent to the country’s overall industrial production, in GDP from about 16 per cent to 25 per cent over 10 years.

Talking about export he said the country’s export during 2010-11 would far surpass the target of $200 billion.

Referring to India’s global engagement agenda in international trade arena, Sharma pointed out that India was holding talks with number of countries to conclude Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

He announced in addition to existing trade negotiations with Indonesia, Thailand, MERCOSUR, and South African Customs Union (SACU), trade negotiations would soon be initiated with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and  Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) regional trade groupings in Africa.

However, he asserted that while concluding FTA with other nations sovereign interests of the country as well as the domestic industry and agro sector would be kept in mind. In regard to trade negotiations in WTO, Sharma reassured the industry that the first priority of the government in any trade negotiation would be to safeguard the national economic interest.