The Hindu : Business : FICCI favours infrastructure overhaul

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 31, 2004

Business

Business

FICCI favours infrastructure overhaul

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 30. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) favours massive overhaul of infrastructure besides special emphasis on agriculture reforms and free movement of goods in order to help the country improve its international rating and place itself on a high growth path.

Spelling out his priorities, O. S. Kanwar, who has assumed charge as the new FICCI chief, said if the country were to attain international rating it would need to pursue reforms, create infrastructure and clear internal bottlenecks.

While the country was recognised as one of the largest markets, there was actually a need to create it by addressing the requirements of the rural people and agri reforms, he said.

The country needed to create a unified market, abolish mandi tax, have cold chains for world-class food processing industry, invest in village infrastructure, besides undertaking steps to upgrade agriculture, he added.

The new FICCI president was appreciative of the UPA Government's focus on rural development and promised industry's support to carry forward the rural reforms, which were the need of the hour.

Focusing on the success of the IT sector, he said India should replicate it in other services sectors including tourism, healthcare and branded retail, which would lead to large scale employment generation. The industry was prepared to support the Government in this initiative as well as taking healthcare to rural India.

On the manufacturing sector, he said the focus should shift from brownfield projects to greenfield projects as that would pave the way for creation of job opportunities and increase flow of investment.

In the context of opposition by some sections of the industry to Free Trade Agreements, he said while stress should be on having stringent rules of origin, India should look at entering into such agreements with developed countries like the U.S., European Union and Japan.

Emphasising the need for bringing down transaction costs to enable the industry to compete with those in developing countries under free trade regimes, he said that reservation of jobs in the private sector was no solution to the unemployment in a market driven economy and went on to offer industry's services in imparting skills to make these sections employable.

He said the FICCI would work in close cooperation with the Confederation of Indian Industry and other bodies to help make the policy-making processes more effective and stronger.

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