The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has called for sustained efforts to achieve a growth rate of four per cent per annum in the agriculture sector while stressing on the need to clock 11-12 per cent growth in manufacturing sector.
"Agriculture needs to grow at a sustained rate of four per cent and this can be achieved by raising farm productivity through improvement of quality of inputs. Moreover, we need better supply chain management, improvement in market linkages, optimal and sustainable use of available land and right pricing of power and water”, CII's national president Hari S Bhartia told mediapersons here.
The industry body has pointed out that virtual stagnation in agriculture has been due to poor infrastructure, collapse of agricultural extension system, decline in public investment in agriculture and fragmentation of land holdings.
For achieving 11-12 per cent growth in the manufacturing sector, CII has stressed on the need for an enabling Manufacturing policy to include simpler clearances and approval mechanism, encouragement to green manufacturing technologies, appropriate infrastructure, flexible labour rules without diluting social security net and easier exit policy.
It has pointed out that every additional one per cent growth in manufacturing creates 20-30 million additional jobs and there is a need to develop strengths in labour intensive sectors such as textiles, consumer electronics, furniture and industrial machinery.'
Commenting on the role of the services sector, Bhartia said, “The services sector will continue to be the growth driver of the economy. Key policy changes are required in this sector like enhanced FDI participation in select areas of services, setting up of a National Services Competitiveness Council, ironing out Centre-state issues in the services sector, improving the viability of the informal sector in services and rationalization of taxation issues in the sector.”
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CII has take several initiatives in the services sector which include developing PPP (Public Private Partnership) model in healthcare space with the Planning Commission, policy dialogue with the Planning Commission for a comprehensive retail policy and dialogue with the Union ministry of tourism for upgrading skills of the manpower required in the tourism and hospitality sector.
Talking on CII's interventions in Orissa, he said that the CII has presented a proposal to the Orissa government for forming a joint task force consisting of the representatives of the government and the industry body.
The onus will be on the task force to bring in investments, sort out issues of industries and provide skills training to the people to make them employable.