No.PR-169
March 20, 2019
New Delhi
PHD Chamber suggests Economic Agenda to Political Parties: Economy @4.0 to create more than 100 million jobs in the next 5 years
PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry has suggested an Economic Agenda to the political parties to create more than 100 million jobs in the next 5 years through 7 pronged strategy including Smart Farming, Bolstering Industrialisation with artificial intelligence and industry 4.0, Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs, Revitalizing exports growth, exploring tourism potential, quality education with skill development and inclusive health for all.
PHD Chamber projects India’s economy with the next era of economic reforms @4.0 would expand to the level of US$ 5 trillion with a growth rate of 9 to 10% in the next 5 years by 2023-24.
The low hanging fruit would be opening the tourist inflows by giving a free tourist visa for one year validity with a double entry permission, wide body aircraft making direct flights from a country straight to distant destinations accounts for massive investment, privatization of road, rail and port development and low cost manufacturing with ease of doing business for MSMEs, said Mr Rajeev Talwar, President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in a press statement issued here today.
1. Exploring Tourism Potential
The importance of the tourism sector is immense not only to earn the foreign currency but also to create millions of employment opportunities for the unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled workforce. The tourism sector has potential to create more than 40 million new jobs in the next 5 years, said Mr Rajeev Talwar.
Transportation needs of the economy become crucial as the economy grows in the higher trajectory. Exploring employment creation with increased air services and number of flights, expansion of taxi services would be crucial to meet transportation needs and to absorb lakhs of workforce, said Mr Rajeev Talwar.
The time is ripe for opening of intra-city bus services, inter-city bus services and inter-state bus services to corporate bus operators all over the country, said Mr Talwar.
2. Smart Farming
Smart Farming should be explored from our inherent strengths in the agriculture sector to shift disguised unemployment from the traditional agriculture to the agro and food processing exports, said Mr Rajeev Talwar.
Agro and food processing exports needs to be scaled up from the current level of US$ 30 billion to US$ 100 billion in the next 5 years by 2023-24 to create 20 million new employment opportunities in the sector, added Mr Talwar.
Easing of market regulations to sell the farm produce anywhere in India to get the best price, use of innovative ways to increase productivity, adapt to climate change, strengthening access to credit for long term loans would go a long way to enhance growth and productivity in the sector and to enhance farm incomes, said Mr Talwar.
3. Bolstering Industrialization
Bolstering industrialization with state of the art infrastructure such as privatization of rail, road and port would create competitiveness not only at the domestic level but also in the international markets. With the advent of artificial intelligence and industry 4.0, with the increased efficiency and efficacy of the production processes, India has potential to become a manufacturing hub and to increase its share in GDP to 25% by 2023-24. We suggest reforms in the direct taxation to take place in which corporate tax rate should be reduced to 20% for all, ignoring the turnover criteria, said Mr Rajeev Talwar.
4. Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs
MSMEs hold immense potential to create employment with improved ease of doing business such as further reforms in the labour laws, availability of land and easy and low cost financing facilities. The sector has potential to create 25 million new jobs in the next 5 years.
5. Revitalizing Exports
Exploring the new areas to revitalize exports growth with the improvement in logistics infrastructure and trade facilitation measures would enhance the exports growth trajectory and create 10 million new jobs in the next 5 years, said Mr Rajeev Talwar.
Focus on twin merit goods of education with skill development and basic health with safety should continue with a longer term vision would lead to socio-economic growth in the coming times, he said.
6. Quality Education and Skill Development
Education expenditure as a percentage of GDP needs to be increased to the level of 6% of GDP. There should be a school in the radius of 1 km and a college in the radius of 10 km in the next 5 years, added Mr Rajeev Talwar.
7. Inclusive Health facilities
Health expenditure as percentage of GDP should be increased to 2.5% of GDP. For the inclusive health facilities, there should be a health centre in the radius of 1 km and a good state of the art hospital in the radius of 5 km, said Mr Rajeev Talwar.
Inclusive health and quality education has potential to create atleast 10 million new jobs in the next 5 years, said Mr Talwar.
We look forward to dynamic policy environment in the coming times for inclusive growth and creation of jobs for all, said Mr Rajeev Talwar.
Ends.
Koteshwar Prasad Dobhal
Consultant (PR)