Kerala Needs 30 lakh New Jobs and Investments: Assocham

KOCHI:
Kerala should aim to create about 30 lakh jobs and attract investments worth up to Rs six lakh crore to attain a double digit economic growth during the course of next five years, apex industry body Assocham said today.
The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) has unveiled a ‘sustainable action plan,’ for LDF government in Kerala to achieve double digit growth in the state that clocked a compounded annual growth rate of over seven per cent during 2004-05 to 2013-14.
“Kerala’s contribution to Indian economy declined from four per cent in 2005-06 to 3.8 per cent in 2011-12 but again gained pace to reach 3.8 per cent in 2012-13 and 3.9 per cent in 2013-14,” highlighted the Assocham paper titled ‘Action Agenda for New Government of Kerala.’
On the investment front, Kerala has recorded robust 14 per cent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) during 2006-07 to 2015-16 thereby attracting investments worth about Rs three lakh crore.
“Considering that growth of industries and services sector in Kerala has been hampered by high labour costs, the new state government needs to ensure appropriate growth of industries with a potential to generate employment opportunities,” said D.S. Rawat, national secretary general of Assocham while releasing the chamber’s paper.
“More so as growing urbanisation has caused an increasing shift from rural to urban areas thereby placing tremendous pressure on urban centres,” said Rawat.
“Besides, the new government should also focus on effective implementation of investment projects and treat the same on priority basis to help accelerate investment related activities in the state and encourage private sector participation on a large scale,” he added.
Kerala’s industrial sector performance during the course of past few years paints a grim picture as industry’s contribution to the state’s economy declined from 22.5 per cent in 2004-05 to about 20 per cent in 2013-14.
Even the workforce dependability on industrial sector has declined from about four per cent to just over two per cent during the aforementioned period. This trend is similar on the national level too as workforce employed in industrial sector had declined from 4.2 per cent in 2001 to 3.8 per cent in 2011.
In its paper, Assocham has thus highlighted various issues concerning industrial sector in Kerala like – dearth of land availability for setting up new industries, inadequate power supply for industries, poor transport infrastructure, failure in attracting new private investors, struggling traditional and core industries, finance related problems for small, medium enterprises and other such areas.
A state-specific land acquisition and rehabilitation policy be developed with options of equity partnership for land providers, employment opportunities, stable monthly income and others.
Besides companies willing to set up operations in backward/underdeveloped places and also in areas that face acute power shortage be offered subsidies/incentives and infrastructure sector based companies be included in special category for tax concessions.
Standardisation of local taxes, cluster development of focussed industrial sectors, reviving traditional industries, strengthening agriculture-industry linkages, sops be offered for export promotion are certain key suggestions to uplift the industrial sector’s performance in Kerala.
It is also suggested to promote use of renewable sources of power and energy saving equipment, improving broadband connectivity in far-flung and rural areas, besides the new state government should ascertain the reasons for fall in agricultural growth and address the factors responsible for the same.
Assocahm has further suggested measures to improve services sector performance like developing a meaningful literacy index, increasing higher-education standards, training of school teachers and others.
On the health front, the chamber has suggested the state to revitalise primary health centres by offering special financial packages, offering comprehensive health insurance scheme for vulnerable section, encourage research activities in health sector, health promotion programmes and training.
Highlighting certain social sector related issues, Assocham paper suggested the state government to come up with a special pension scheme for unorganised labour with advanced age. Apart from this the chamber has also urged for addressing issues related to social disparity on an urgent basis.
Assocham has also suggested the new government in Kerala to support its growing migrant population which powers the state’s service economy – construction, hospitality, trans
port and others.
Considering migrant worker’s role in reducing growing labour shortage in Kerala, Assocham opines that state government should provide them basic facilities to help them live a dignified life.