The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : `Business services needed for growth'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 03, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

`Business services needed for growth'

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, MARCH 2. The need for India to liberalise reforms further and facilitate growth of business services was underscored by Geza Feketekuty, president, Institute for Trade and Commercial Diplomacy, Washington D.C.

At a lecture on "WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services and Improve the GATS Architecture" organised by the ICFAI Institute for Management Teachers (IIMT) and Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, he said business services were a crucial driver of economic growth.

Increasing productivity

Prof. Geza Feketekuty said services like R & D, data collection, design and engineering, business processing, accounting, legal research, logistics management, technical maintenance, software programming and training were vital for innovation and increasing economic value and productivity.

He said the contribution of Indian services sector to manufacturing output went up from one per cent in the 1980s to 25 per cent in the 90s. This had helped attract foreign direct investment, witness faster growth and create employment opportunities, he said. Indian manufacturers would benefit by accessing services to increase their competitiveness in global markets, he said, adding India could become a global player if it were given free access to the best of business services to boost growth rates.

R. Mahender Reddy, principal, IIMT, welcomed. Col. M. Vijay Kumar, chairman, Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, State branch and Ravi Candadai, First Secretary and Consul for Public Affairs, US Consulate Chennai, were present.

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