Govt to soon announce manufacturing policy

The government today said it will soon unveil a national manufacturing policy, which aims at attracting overseas investments and increase the share of the sector in the economy.

"We had completed all inter-ministerial and stakeholders consultations. I hope, we will be able to do it soon," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said at a CII function here.

The government aims at increasing the share of manufacturing sector from 16-17% to 25-26% of the GDP by 2020. Manufacturing contributes over 80% in the country's overall industrial production.

Sharma said that soon Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will chair a meeting on the proposed policy "and after that we will give India its first National Manufacturing Policy".

Under the upcoming policy, the government has proposed to set up integrated green-field mega-investment zones to attract global investment and latest technologies.

The minister said increasing manufacturing share in the Indian economy is a priority as millions of skilled workforce is expected to join the segment in the near future.

The new policy would also help in attracting more foreign direct investment into the country, he added.

Talking about the strategy paper on exports, which aims at doubling India's exports to $450 billion by 2014, Sharma said that the policy will be unveiled soon.

India's exports this fiscal are likely to increase to $235 billion, from $178.6 billion in 2009-10.

On the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a new international treaty being framed by a group of developed nations, the minister rejected such attempts and said India would not accept any such attempts to discuss intellectual property rights outside the multilateral WTO framework.

India is strongly opposing this pact, saying that it would have far-reaching implications for non-members of ACTA. The countries such as the US, EU, Japan, Australia, Canada and New Zealand are discussing the pact.

"Few countries will group together and try to change what is and will always be a multilateral regime called the TRIPS agreement. If it has to revisited in any stage in future, it will be only in multilateral forum - the WTO, it cannot be done outside," he added.