Focus more on leather units, Sonia tells Nath

Congress President Sonia Gandhi has told Commerce Minister Kamal Nath that his ministry needs to do much more for the leather and footwear sector.

The sector has been included in the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) as an important focus area due of its vast potential for generating growth and jobs.

"I am aware that some progress has been made by your ministry in this sector. However, there is much more to be done if we have to show visible results and achieve the objectives in the NCMP," Sonia wrote to Nath recently.

"In view of the priority that we are attaching to this sector, you may like to see that in consultation with the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, action-oriented plans are prepared and executed urgently," she said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had set up a committee to speed up the development of priority manufacturing areas identified in the NCMP. The committee had identified leather and footwear as a key growth sector.

The prime minister has placed the development of leather sector in 'Strategies and Priorities-2006.' Accordingly, initiatives and timelines were drawn in consultation with various stakeholders, including representatives of industries and organisations working in this sector. The prime minister reviews progress on this regularly.

Nath, in his reply to Gandhi, gave details of the steps taken for the industry, including setting up of a committee to monitor, review and guide initiatives in the sector.

He said in the last few months, his ministry was able to catalyse investment from large international manufacturers like Apache and Feng Tey. These and other investments in the pipeline would help the sector to achieve the target of $7 billion exports by 2010. he said.