India must double infrastructure spending: Singh
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
NEW DELHI, Mar 23 (AFP): India needs to double infrastructure spending to achieve the high growth needed to lift millions out of poverty, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Tuesday.
The target 'looks ambitious but not impossible', Singh told a conference on infrastructure in New Delhi, saying he was hoping for more foreign and domestic private sector money to help the government reach its goal.
India will have to spend about one trillion dollars on improving its dilapidated highways, ports, airports, power plants and other infrastructure over the five years to 2016-17 to attain its annual growth target of 10 percent, Singh said.
That is up from 500 billion dollars in planned infrastructure spending in the five years to 2011-12 announced by India's Planning Commission, a government agency that establishes growth and investment goals.
India's shabby infrastructure is seen by economists as the main impediment to accelerating growth in the country of nearly 1.2 billion people and closing the gap with neighbouring giant China.
"For eliminating poverty and providing productive employment for our young population in the near future, we must aim at accelerating the pace of economic growth to about 10 percent per annum," Singh said.
Improving infrastructure "is extremely relevant to our economic future", he said.
The demands of India's expanding economy has pushed its infrastructure to its limits. Power cuts last hours, congested ports delay loading, and the nation's roads are notoriously potholed.
The target 'looks ambitious but not impossible', Singh told a conference on infrastructure in New Delhi, saying he was hoping for more foreign and domestic private sector money to help the government reach its goal.
India will have to spend about one trillion dollars on improving its dilapidated highways, ports, airports, power plants and other infrastructure over the five years to 2016-17 to attain its annual growth target of 10 percent, Singh said.
That is up from 500 billion dollars in planned infrastructure spending in the five years to 2011-12 announced by India's Planning Commission, a government agency that establishes growth and investment goals.
India's shabby infrastructure is seen by economists as the main impediment to accelerating growth in the country of nearly 1.2 billion people and closing the gap with neighbouring giant China.
"For eliminating poverty and providing productive employment for our young population in the near future, we must aim at accelerating the pace of economic growth to about 10 percent per annum," Singh said.
Improving infrastructure "is extremely relevant to our economic future", he said.
The demands of India's expanding economy has pushed its infrastructure to its limits. Power cuts last hours, congested ports delay loading, and the nation's roads are notoriously potholed.