Govt allays MNCs fears on preferential market access policy

NEW DELHI: Allaying fears of MNCs on preferential market access (PMA) policy, the government today said aim of the policy was to promote domestic manufacturing of products, and benefits from these would also apply to foreign firms manufacturing products in the country.

"...domestic manufacturing means what is manufactured here, it can be manufactured by a multinational company," Telecom Secretary MF Farooqui said at a CII event here.

He added that the policy is consistent with India's WTO's commitments.

The Cabinet in February last year had approved the PMA policy. It is envisaged to push manufacturing capabilities in the country to reduce dependency on imports, especially in the strategic fields like defence and telecom.

PMA policy had seen opposition from various foreign trade associations, including industry body Information Technology Industry (ITI) Council which represents major foreign technology companies like Alcatel Lucent, Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia.

Emphasising that the next level of growth in telecom sector will come from data, Farooqui said that with National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN), the government has put in place a superior quality highway that will be available at the village level.

He said NOFN can help in reducing the high transaction cost that the rural population has to bear for most basic services.

The government aims to connect all the 2,50,000 gram panchayats in the country through optical fibre cable (OFC) in two years under the NOFN project. It has earmarked Rs 20,000 crore for the purpose.

Farooqui also released a CII-KPMG report 'Creating viable business models for inclusive growth through the National Optical Fibre Network'.