The new Foreign Trade Policy, to be unveiled on April 7, would focus mainly on attracting foreign direct investment and generating employment for the youth, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath said in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
The minister said he was optimistic of a 75 per cent growth in FDI and was also expecting the exports to touch $100-billion-mark after the new policy came into effect.
"Our foreign trade policy, which was re-oriented two years ago, has been changed from a mere dollar-generating orientation to one which has thrust on employment generation and increase in overall economic activity," said Kamal Nath.
"Employment generation, especially for the youth and attracting FDIs will be the main focus of the new foreign trade policy which will be announced on April 7," he said.
The minister was in the city to attend a function at Ahmedabad Management Association and give away the AMA-Atlas Dyechem Outstanding Entrepreneur of the Year Award-2006.
"During the past two years, our FDI inflows have shown a remarkable growth," Kamal Nath said, adding that the FDIs in India were largely 'domestic market driven.'
Talking about the new policy, the minister said, "This year we are expecting a 75 per cent growth in FDIs as compared to last year."
"Our exports have also shown an unprecedented growth of 26 per cent in the last two years," he said. "This year we will touch $100 billion in exports," Kamal Nath added.
"What is more heartening is that incremental exports have created at least two-and-a-half-million new jobs in the past two years," Kamal Nath said, adding that such growth had contributed significantly to the current boom witnessed on the Sensex.
"The rationale behind inviting FDIs was accelerating infrastructure development and increasing employment for skilled and unskilled workers," he added.
The Minister said the manufacturing sector was currently growing at 10 per cent. "But we need to grow at 14 per cent in manufacturing and create five million jobs a year," he added.
"China is getting 10 times more FDI than India and Chinese exports were four times more than us, but their economic growth is just about two per cent more than us," he said.
"Unlike China, with its mass manufacturing and export driven economy, we in India focus on high value production of goods and effective management of capital and resources," he remarked.
The Minister also gave an example of global IT major Dell, which was setting up a huge plant in India. He said Dell had come to India because the country had become a new destination for designs.
Nath said that India's identity as a BPO (business process outsourcing) hub was a thing of the past as it has now evolved into a KPO (knowledge process outsourcing) destination.
He criticised the 42 per cent subsidy offered to cotton growers in the United States. "Such structural flaws do exist in the WTO," he lamented.
"However, the policies of the WTO are no more scripted by the developed nations alone. We also have an equal say," he said.
The minister also presented the Outstanding Entrepreneur of the Year Award-2006 to Mukesh Bhandari, Chairman and Managing Director of Electrotherm (India) Limited.
Bhandari received the award for taking Electrotherm from a small beginning to a leading manufacturer of large induction melting furnaces and electronic equipment.
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