Indien müsse die Vermittlung von Qualifikationen, Wissen und Ausbildung der Bevölkerung sicherstellen, damit sie zum wirtschaftlichen Wachstum beitragen kann, forderte Kamal Nath, Indiens Minister für Transport und Autobahnen, bei der Eröffnung der Bautechnik-Messe Excon 2009.
FOCUS ON INDIA-SPECIFIC PRODUCTS, R&D AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT: MR KAMAL NATH
“Focus on India-specific products, India-specific R&D and skill development will drive growth for the Indian Earthmoving and Construction Equipment Industry (ECE),” said Mr Kamal Nath, Hon’ble Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Government of India. He said that there is a need for huge capacity building across the entire spectrum of the infrastructure industry – from engineers, contractors, consultants, construction equipment manufacturers, etc, to enable the government achieve the target of constructing 7000 kms per annum.
He said that India is the reservoir of human talent and its human resource is not going to deplete. However, there is a need to ensure right imparting of skills, knowledge and training to them so that they can contribute to the economic growth.
Delivering the inaugural address at Excon 2009, the South Asia’s largest trade fair for Construction Equipment and Construction Technology, being organized here by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Mr Kamal Nath said that the challenge in infrastructure development is not just about creating more roads but also about managing roads, which are difficult to achieve, considering the complexities involved in running a federal state of democracy. The infrastructure development should also be made more equitable and inclusive in such a way that it creates positive impact in all the regions and cross section of people.
He said that as the country grows, the biggest deficit in infrastructure will be in the road sector. India has 3.4 million kms of road, which is the second largest in the world. Over 40% of the road transport takes place on national highways, however out of the 70,000 kms of highways, 17,000 kms are one-lane highways. Hence, the country needs to bridge the deficit in infrastructure and also to create more infrastructure, as the growth would continue to demand. “India has 300 million people earning one dollar a day and 350 million, two dollars a day. In this context, economic growth of about 8% would mean that over 25 million people would be shifted from one meal to two meals a day, and from mere two-meals a day to better two-meals a day – that is having them consume more vegetables and fruits,” he said.
He added that India is the second largest producer of vegetables and fruits but 40% of the produce rot without adequate road connectivity and cold storage. The country is the world’s largest producer of milk but still there are many parts of the country that witness chronic milk shortage. These aberrations have to be corrected with effective infrastructure development.
Mr Kamal Nath said that with its strong fundamentals, India is very well on the growth trajectory – the economy is set to achieve a 6.5% growth this year and aims to achieve 8% growth in 2010 and 9% in 2011. Though India felt the tremors of economic slowdown, its matured and strongly regulated financial system did not collapse.
In his special address, Mr Ramachandra Gowda, Minister for Medical Education, Government of Karnataka, said that Karnataka is at the forefront of industrial growth in the country, thanks to its inherent strengths such as availability of skilled man power, entrepreneurial spirit of people. The State believes that the key parameter for industrial growth is to give industry access to world class infrastructure at affordable cost. Hence the State is helping the industries in the infrastructure sector to grow by way of providing several incentives pertaining to reduction of stamp duties, rendering project assistance, investing in infrastructure projects, among others.
Delivering the theme address, Mr Vipin Sondhi, Chairman, Excon 2009, said that factors including the stimulus given by the government for infrastructure development, presence of the stable and proactive government, continual articulation of government about the thrust given to infrastructure development and dynamism of ministers in the government are giving big boost to the growth of the Indian infrastructure and ECE industry. The Indian ECE industry will be a US$15 billion industry by 2015 – however, to fully realize the potential, there should be concerted and well-coordinated efforts by the industry and the government. The key focus area of such an effort should be on increasing the availability of trained man power in the country.
Mr Sondhi said that when compared with the last edition of Excon, the current edition of 2009 has grown in all aspects: the display area had grown from 1,00,000 square meters in 2007 to 1,60,000 sq.mts this year, marking about 60% of growth; the number of exhibitors increased by 55% from about 290 in 2007 to over 450 in 2009. Over 42 overseas companies are directly putting up stalls while there are country pavilions for China, Germany, Italy and UK.
In his address, Mr Ranaveer Sinha, Chairman, Indian Earthmoving & Construction Industry Association Ltd (IECIAL), said that the size of the global construction equipment (CE) industry is US$ 100 billion and that of India’s is US$ 4 to US$5 billion. Thanks to the fact that the government is giving a great impetus to the infrastructure development with the emphasis to provide power, potable water and other basic facilities to every village, India’s CE is growing rapidly – it is expected that the size of the industry will double in 4 to 5 years.
The foremost challenges of the industry include: lack of safety standards in the construction equipment and construction industry, as a result of which there are frequent reports on accidents happening at the construction sites. As a thumb rule, there will be 100 dangerous occurrences and 10 unreported accidents for every reported accident. Hence, the industry needs to come forward to evolve norms on safety standards. There is also the need for the adoption of green measures such as improving the efficiency of the equipment, cutting out emissions and usage of fossil fuels. The industry should take care that India is not dumped with unsafe used equipment from abroad. He said that making use of the low-cost manufacturing base and abundant talent, there is a great opportunity for the country to focus on export markets not only for components, equipment but also engineering design and R&D.
In his address, Mr Jamshyd N Godrej, Past President, CII and Chairman, Bangalore International Exhibition Centre, said that that the government is putting so much emphasis on infrastructure development and its management of economy is quite exceptional. Rural areas and infrastructure sector are growing well. He said that the trade centres are magnets for trade and industry – the trade centres help countries attract investment in industrial sectors and generate a multiplier effect for economic growth. He urged the government and the industry to come forward to create more international trade centres in the country.
In his welcome address, Mr C R Swaminathan, Chairman, CII-Southern Region said that the Indian construction industry is estimated to have a turnover of US$ 60 billion in the current year. This sector employs 31 million people, the second largest, next only to agriculture. It consumes 40-50% of national plan outlay and accounts for 20% of GDP. Since, the infrastructure inadequacies pose major constraints to quantum economic growth, there should be concerted effort from the industry and the government to focus on infrastructure development.
Mr T Parabrahman, Chairman, CII-Karnataka State Council proposed a vote of thanks.