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Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister for Commerce & Industry, has called for innovative instruments and mechanisms to tap resources – both within the country as well as internationally – for financing infrastructure projects in the country. Inaugurating the 2-day India Infrastructure Summit, organised by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce & industry and Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), here this morning, Shri Kamal Nath said: “Given their resource requirement, it is not possible to fund them fully from the government’s budgetary resources. Government has introduced the facility of viability gap funding to support Public-Private Partnership initiatives in infrastructure sectors. Viability gap funding can be in various forms, and a mix of capital & revenue support is possible. I would urge the investing community to take full advantage of the facility which covers roads, seaports, airports, power, water supply, sewerage, solid waste management and international convention centres”.
Underlining that investment requirements of the Indian economy are huge, he cited estimates to the effect that the country would need foreign direct investment (FDI) for infrastructure to the tune of US $ 150 billion over the next five years, and urged the participants to look at the crucial issue of how to attract big ticket investments into the infrastructure sectors. While the government in association with industry was attempting to promote investment, Shri Kamal Nath said the Indian industry also should rise to the occasion and form collaborations to implement infrastructure projects.
Emphasising the predominant role of infrastructure in economic development, Shri Kamal Nath pointed out that the advanced economies of the West including the US and Europe, besides Japan, had all developed their infrastructure first and closer home, the South East Asian countries and China had done the same thing. India’s institutional strengths and many other factors had positioned it today as the world’s fastest growing free market democracy with a bright future. “But if we have to sustain this rosy picture we must pay more than lip-service to infrastructure. Inadequacies in physical infrastructure can severely constrain economic growth and, in fact, take us backwards. Infrastructure is both a driver as well as a magnet for investment”, he observed.
SB/MRS
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