Industry body, Assocham and Yes Bank presented the recommendations for new Industrial Policy of Punjab to the Chief Minister of Punjab, Prakash Singh Badal here today.

The draft industrial policy jointly brought out by the associated Chamber and commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) and Yes Bank was released by Ashok Khanna, Chairman ASSOCHAM Entrepreneur Development council, D S Rawat, Secretary General ASSOCHAM and Tushar Pandey, President and Country Head, Strategic Initiatives, Government and Advisory (SIGA), Yes Bank here today.

While addressing the conference Rawat said the recommendations were presented to ensure that the views of the industry members are incorporated in the renewed industrial policy about to be announced by the Punjab Government to attain rapid and sustainable growth and development in the state.

Pandey said that apart from developing and attracting few large scale industries in the State, there is a need to develop the MSME sector. Punjab being a proven starting base for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), needs to take steps to enhance their growth prospects. The intention should be to try and make MSMEs a partner in the progress of the State. Also, adequate steps need to be taken to develop R&D centers to accelerate innovations. There needs to be an institutionalized framework for these industries with adequate exposure to the latest technologies and business practices available internationally.

The key recommendations proposed jointly by Assocham and Yes Bank in the policy towards making Punjab a more investor friendly state, include identifying new tracts of land to attract large and medium industries. It suggested that the State Government should make all efforts to attract capital inflows into infrastructure with specific target towards financing, designing, implementing and operating infrastructure facilities and services in the State to achieve the twin objectives of high growth and equity on a sustainable basis.

There are some districts in Punjab which have limited presence of a single large scale industry. Thus there is a need to attract greater investment in the development of large and medium industries in the MSME sector.

Industrial clusters need to be developed in Punjab for small and medium enterprises that are involved in food processing, handicrafts; renewable energy, information technology, petrochemicals and downstream industry of refinery, automobile, sugar, hand tools, sports goods, hosiery/garments/knitting, road and infrastructure, education, medical tourism, real estate, entertainment, pharmaceuticals and metal as the target sectors and these can be especially developed in the border districts. The state Government must seek to lay the foundation and provide the impetus for long-term growth of e-Governance across the state to create the right atmosphere for governance and institutional mechanisms.

There should be a strong commitment to ensure that subsidies are properly targeted to ensure that middle men do not misappropriate the money meant for deserving candidates while at the same time seeking to reduce them over a period of time. The State Government must seek to lay the foundation and provide the impetus for long-term growth of e-Governance across the State to create the right governance and institutional mechanisms. Government should conduct NRI seminars in different cities of the State to develop stronger relations with NRIs of the State. Further, there is a need to promote business facilitation services to the NRIs and facilitate business partnerships with them in the State.

The State should identify some basic sectors and try to mobilize FDIs through organizing Global Investment Seminar with the support of industry chambers.