Service sector can help achieve $5 tn GDP target: Goyal

Union minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said India's service sector can help achieve the Central government's target of $5 trillion GDP.

"The service sector has the potential to be the largest job creators in the country and over the next five years it has the potential to contribute $3 trillion out of the $5 trillion GDP target set by the government," Goyal, the minister of Railways, Commerce and Industry, said.

At the inauguration of the fifth Global Exhibition on Services-2019 at the Palace Grounds here, he said it is the manufacturing and services industry that will be the growth engines of the Indian economy.

He emphasised that these two sectors need to work together, as without services, manufacturing cannot succeed and without manufacturing, services cannot grow.

According to Goyal, India needs to move beyond Business Process Outsourcing and work towards adopting new-age technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, machine learning and engage with the rest of the world on equal terms.

The three-day event has been organised by the Ministry of Commerce and Industries, Karnataka government, Services Export Promotion Council and the Confederation of Indian Industry.