Prabhu for making auto clusters on east, west coasts
NEWDELHI: THE MINISTER URGED GLOBAL AUTOMOBILE FIRMS TO LOOK AT INDIA AS PART OF THEIR INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS
Commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday made a case for developing automobile clusters on the east and west coasts of India to promote growth and exports from the sector.
Prabhu said he would discuss the plan with Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu regarding an auto cluster in the state during the forthcoming partnership summit of CII at Visakhapatnam.
“I will talk to the chief minister and we will make sure that we create a global scale infrastructure auto cluster in Andhra Pradesh”, he said.
He was speaking at the inauguration of auto components expo at Pragati Maidan in the capital.
The minister said he envisaged on the east coast, a portbased infrastructure for the auto industry which will have all the components for the sector.
Prabhu asked the industry to prepare a blueprint in this regard so as to take the discussion forward.
“Same thing, we can do on the west coast in Maharashtra. This will also help boost exports,” he added.
Further, he said the economy would touch $5 trillion in the coming years and out of this $1 trillion would come from exports of goods and services.
To meet this target, the ministry is preparing a detailed strategy, he said.
The minister urged global automobile firms to look at India as part of their global operations and identify products which can be manufactured here.