Union Chemical and Fertilizers Minister Ananth Kumar on Thursday said the government will act as a facilitator and not as a regulator for the petrochemicals sector.
Speaking at the Petrochemical Conclave in Gurgaon, he said the sector needs an investment of over Rs. 60,000 crore in the near future and assured that the government is ready to provide the investment.
Reiterating Prime Minister Narendra Modi's clarion Make in India call, Kumar said the government is ready to address basic issues concerning the sector and downstream industries like environment, infrastructure and incentives.
He said in the last budget, the government had taken several steps to correct anomalies and gave a boost to the sector, and this process is likely to continue in the forthcoming budget.
Kumar said the demand for petrochemicals is growing and added that the sector provides value addition to a chain of petroleum products.
Kumar said the conclave has provided a platform for discussing the issues concerning the sector. He said stakeholders should come out with a "Move Forward Paper", culling out issues needing support from the central and the state governments.
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He said that the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers will forward the issue raised in the paper to other authorities.
Kumar stressed on the need for capacity building in the petrochemical sector. He suggested that there could be another vertical in several institutes for training the personnel in the petrochemicals which will provide formal and structural skill development.
He also called upon the refining companies to be anchor units and take part in the development of downstream industries and infrastructure. He said that this would help in better coordination and cooperation and the Government would be more than happy to act as a catalyst.
He suggested that there should be state-level conclaves of petrochemical industry, where all the stakeholders could participate to thrash out the issues in an amicable manner.
He expressed the hope that as India is a niche player in certain hi-tech sectors; it would strive to become so in the petrochemical sector also.
He stressed on the need for setting up more petrochemical complexes in the country.
The Petrochemical Conclave is the fourth in the series of such conclaves. It was organized by the Indian Oil Corporation.