'Higher Indian growth depends on improving infrastructure'
Billions of dollars must be spent to improve India's creaking infrastructure to achieve the economic growth needed to lift millions out of poverty, a top government policy advisor said on Tuesday.
By Agencies |
NEW DELHI: Billions of dollars must be spent to improve India's creaking infrastructure to achieve the economic growth needed to lift millions out of poverty, a top government policy advisor said on Tuesday.
India's dilapidated ports, roads, power supplies and other infrastructure are a "critical constraint" to stronger growth, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the government's key Planning Commission, told the India Economic Summit.
"Investment in infrastructure in 2006-07 was five percent of gross domestic product and was inadequate. We need to increase it to about nine percent" by the financial year 2011-12 to around five billion dollars, said Ahluwalia.
India's goal of attaining 10 percent growth by the 2011-2012 financial year would be unachievable unless infrastructure spending moves into much higher gear, said Ahluwalia.
India has logged 8.6 percent average annual growth in the last four years and economists say expansion must shift to double digits to make a significant dent in deep poverty afflicting millions.
The Indian government will pick up the tab for 70 percent of the infrastructure spending but the rest -- around 150 billion dollars -- must come from private sources, Ahluwalia told the summit, which was slated to wrap up on Tuesday.
The meeting of financial players from around the world eager to learn about India's rapidly expanding economy has heard a litany of complaints from business leaders about the disastrous state of India's infrastructure.
The summit is part of a series of regional meetings ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in early 2008.
India's dilapidated ports, roads, power supplies and other infrastructure are a "critical constraint" to stronger growth, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the government's key Planning Commission, told the India Economic Summit.
"Investment in infrastructure in 2006-07 was five percent of gross domestic product and was inadequate. We need to increase it to about nine percent" by the financial year 2011-12 to around five billion dollars, said Ahluwalia.
India's goal of attaining 10 percent growth by the 2011-2012 financial year would be unachievable unless infrastructure spending moves into much higher gear, said Ahluwalia.
India has logged 8.6 percent average annual growth in the last four years and economists say expansion must shift to double digits to make a significant dent in deep poverty afflicting millions.
The Indian government will pick up the tab for 70 percent of the infrastructure spending but the rest -- around 150 billion dollars -- must come from private sources, Ahluwalia told the summit, which was slated to wrap up on Tuesday.
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The meeting of financial players from around the world eager to learn about India's rapidly expanding economy has heard a litany of complaints from business leaders about the disastrous state of India's infrastructure.
The summit is part of a series of regional meetings ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in early 2008.
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