)
Industry body Assocham on Monday asked Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat to encourage private investments, create more jobs and promote the health care sector to help the hill state develop faster.
Congratulating Rawat on his appointment as the new chief minister of the state, Assocham Secretary-General D S Rawat said this has generated fresh hopes for the state's economic turnaround.
Rawat took charge of the state on February 1, replacing Vijay Bahuguna.
Innovative approaches are required to meet the challenges in view of the state's demography and the physical and the social environment, he added. Citing latest Assocham data, Rawat said the state's domestic product recorded a 12.4 per cent growth between 2004-05 and 2012-13. Industry and services segments of the state economy recorded 16.7 per cent and 13.1 per cent growth respectively during the eight years till March 2013. However, agricultural growth during this period was a mere 2.6 per cent, the Assocham official said.
At the end of December 2013, the state had live investment projects valued at Rs 1.13 lakh crore. Live investments witnessed a jump of mere Rs 3,000 crore, he said.
