Press Trust of India 

India can play vital role in EPO industry: Nath

New Delhi, Feb 13 (PTI) Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath today said India has the potential to contribute significantly to the global Engineering Process Outsourcing (EPO) industry, given its skilled workforce and growing manufacturing sector.

"The Engineering Process Outsourcing industry is an emerging sector globally and India can have a 25 per cent share in this 70 billion dollar industry," Nath said at the inaugural ceremony of the '17th International Engineering and Technology Fair' here.

He said engineering exports are likely to touch 24 billion dollar this year and could grow to 30 billion dollar in the future.

"The industry is growing at 30 per cent and has generated huge employment opportunity in the country. A number of global firms too are encouraged to set up manufacturing base in India," he added.

The manufacturing sector has been recording a double digit growth, he said, adding that it must grow at 15 per cent annually for it to achieve a 25 per cent share in GDP from the current 17 per cent.

Japan is the partner country at the Fair, being organised by industry body CII. Highlighting that FDI from Japan to India has been growing at 60 per cent for the last two years, Nath said the small and medium entreprises from both the countries need to engage further with each other.

*****