The Hindu : India's new image visible globally: Jaitley

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 10, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

India's new image visible globally: Jaitley

Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

Rajive Kaul (right) greets the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, on behalf of the CII after signing a Memorandum of Understanding for employment generation at the CII-Partnership Summit 2004 in Hyderabad on Friday. The Union Minister for Commerce, Law and Justice, Arun Jaitley, the State Minister for Major Industries, K. Vidyadher Rao, and the MD of Hero Honda, Sunil Kant Munjal is also seen.

HYDERABAD, JAN. 9. The "changing agenda of Indian politics" with development and economic issues taking centre stage has been the most significant thing happening in the post-reform period, the Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Arun Jaitley, has said adding that, "We now have a new image for India and this is visible globally."

Speaking at the valedictory session of the three-day Partnership Summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here on Friday, he said the second most important factor was the "changing mindset" which was far different from the "cynical mindset" noticeable a few years ago.

India today had political stability, a stable policy regime and investors have found better returns than elsewhere in the world. "Investments will come in only when there are profits, which in turn bring in more revenue for the Government. Only then will the Government be able to spend more on social purposes too," he pointed out.

In an address intended to drive home the point that the recent flow of positive economic growth parameters was a reflection of the success of reforms, he said if the remaining challenges were addressed to, then India could certainly have a better growth rate and achieve faster its goal of becoming a `developed nation'.

He said India faced a great challenge on how to become a `global manufacturing hub' and how to increase the 25 per cent share of this sector in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). "This will be our concern for the next 5 to 7 years and for achieving this we have to ensure that a proper labour regime is in place," he said. The loss of jobs perceived by developed countries in the service sector was another great challenge of the future. Powerful economies were now worried. "The world is in search of `best quality and best price' concept, and the equilibrium of economies is shifting. We have to shape ourselves accordingly," he said.

He pointed out that there was no trade in the world that was more distorted than agriculture and called for this distortion to be corrected. "On account of this distortion our agricultural prices are low, there is unemployment and underemployment and farmers are unable to compete globally. We have to concentrate on developing rural infrastructure and leverage food surplus to improve rural economy. We have to work for an Integrated Food Law," he said.

Referring to exports, he said despite the depreciating dollar and lack of a level playing field our merchandise exports grew by 19 per cent and most of the segments had crossed the export targets. There were exceptions like textiles, garments and marine exports, which the Government was looking into, he said.

On the growing trend of trade agreements, he said a large part of international trade was now regulated by regional and bilateral trade agreements. India was preparing for both the situations, he said. "We now have free trade agreement with ASEAN and are negotiating with Singapore. Last week there was the SAFTA with SAARC."

On the `roadmap' for development, he said besides the focus on manufacturing and agriculture, the nation had the potential to become a hub for `knowledge economy'. "We have the potential to be a major manpower supplier. But for this we need to further expand on education. We also have to plan for mega global cities," he felt.

Referring to the point made by an earlier speaker on the Special Economic Zones (SEZ), he said if the existing provisions were used effectively, the turnover could be increased multi-fold. India had eight SEZs and 23 more were cleared in the last few months, he pointed out.

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