SEZ legislation to be passed in next session: Kamal Nath

The much awaited legislation on special economic zones (SEZ) will be passed early in the next session of Parliament, Kamal Nath, Union minister of commerce and industries, said in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

At the valedictory session of the 'Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit 2005', Nath said: "The SEZ legislation is very important and we will ensure that it comes in the next session of Parliament. We will bring out a new policy in the next session".

Talking about economic reforms, Nath said: "Economic reforms was introduced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when he was the finance minister. Reform was new word in 1991 "" at that point, we could not have followed the policy model of North America, Asia or any other country because we were struggling to meet our foreign exchange reserves."

"We need to bring in a conducive atmosphere for growth of over eight per cent. We need to maintain two-digit growth rate in the manufacturing sector," said Nath.

"The government is eyeing at overall growth of the society. India with the strong institutions, judiciary, strong exchanges have the confidence of the investors in the country. With the patent law opens up, opportunities have opened up for India and we need to unleash the entrepreneur and human skills available in the country. We need to set up infrastructure to use the human skills of the country," said Nath.

"India is a strong country and it offers what no other country offers. The central government is committed at over all growth of the country," the commerce minister said.

"Gujarat apart from taking lead in manufacturing sector, needs to strengthen the service sector. In fact entire spectrum of services are needed to be covered with new paradigm in education. When you showcase Gujarat, you showcase India and the desire of investment in Gujarat is the desire of investment in India," said Nath.