By IANS,
New Delhi : The government will finalise within a few weeks the national manufacturing policy, having completed the consultation process, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said Friday.
“The cabinet note was signed yesterday. In a few weeks from now, India will have its first national manufacturing policy,” Sharma said at the second export summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry.
He said the new policy aims to increase the share of manufacturing in the country’s gross domestic product to over 25 percent by 2022 from the current level of nearly 16 percent.
“Over 100 million young Indians will be joining the workforce in a few years from now. Manufacturing is the only sector which can provide jobs to them,” Sharma said.
A high-level committee, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had cleared a draft of the national manufacturing policy recently.
The Manmohan Singh government has been criticized by the industry for not being able to push through critical reforms and legislations.
However, the minister said the government was not suffering from any policy paralysis and that it was committed to take forward the reforms process.
“We are taking the industry’s concerns seriously and will take all the necessary steps to address them. A joint task force group chaired by myself has been set up to promote dialogue between the industry and the government,” Sharma told reporters on the sidelines of the summit.
Corporate India has also been asking the government to improve infrastructure and has been complaining about high interest rates and high transaction cost.
“We are taking substantial measures to address these issues,” said Sharma.