Mumbai, March 14 (IANS) India Thursday invited the Czech Republic to invest in its National Investment Manufacturing Zones as the country's industrial sector is set to witness rapid growth in the next ten years.
Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said that according to a recent UNIDO release, India ranks among the top 10 manufacturers globally.
"India has also been ranked second on manufacturing competence in the 2010 Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index prepared by Deloitte and US Council on Competitiveness," he said.
Sharma was speaking at the inauguration of the India Engineering Sourcing Show here in the presence of Czech Trade and Industry Minister Martin Kuba, who is currently heading a 100-member engineering industry delegation to India.
Acknowledging Czech expertise in the field of engineering sector, especially automotives, Sharma said India has designated the Czech Republic as part of the market linked focus product Scheme for incentivizing engineering goods exports.
On its part, the Czech Republic has reciprocated by identifying India as one of the top 12 countries for future collaborations as part of its trade policy.
Sharma said that the NIMZs will be stand-alone greenfield industrial townships with world-class infrastructure.
Under India's National Manufacturing Policy, an attempt has been made to introduce flexibility in labour laws, simplify business regulations, provide fiscal incentives to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and introduce simpler and expeditious exit mechanism.
"India's first ever National Manufacturing Policy has been formulated with the twin objectives of enhancing the share of manufacturing in our GDP from the current low level of 16 percent to at least 25 percent by the next decade and to create 100 million skilled jobs in the next 10 years," he added.
Terming the upcoming Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor as the biggest industrial infrastructure project in the world at the moment, Sharma said that eight of the 12 industrial townships fell under DMIC, with the 900 square km Dholera Industrial Centre in Gujarat being the largest.
He said the central government has committed Rs.18,500 crore towards the DMIC Trust, with Japan committing $4.5 billion towards equity participation.
Underscoring the role of the engineering industry, Sharma said it represents 27 percent of total factories in industrial sector and accounts for 63 percent of overall foreign collaborations.
Quoting a World Bank study "Unleashing India's Innovations", Sharma said India is fast gaining global recognition, especially for its low-cost, high-tech frugal innovation technology.
He said top MNCs are today outsourcing industrial engineering design tasks to India in sectors like semiconductors, automotive hybrid technologies, next gen routers in telecom, power generation equipments, aerospace, avionics and consumer electronics, besides setting up R&D centres in India.
Attracting 304 Indian and 101 international companies, the IESS-2013 is focused on promoting collaborative opportunities in India, as a technology hub for manufacturing industry.
While Czech Republic is the partner country with a major presence, France, Thailand and Japan have put up separate country pavilions.
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