New Delhi, Sep 30 (IANS): The Indian chemical industry has a huge role to play to make India a $5 trillion economy, with a potential to contribute $300 billion to the GDP by 2025, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda said on Tuesday.

Addressing the inaugural session and launch of India Chem 2021 at 'Specialty Chem 2020', the minister said that to become a global hub in speciality chemicals, India must focus on research and development.

"There is a need to make the R&D ecosystem stronger to come up with enhanced products, aligned with the changing requirement of the industries," he said.

On foreign investment in the chemical industry, he said that the ministry has set up an investment promotion cell in the department for providing one-stop handholding and support for companies willing to invest in India.

"We have had several rounds of discussions on how to make the PCPIR (Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region) more effective and we hope to come up with policies to make the industrial clusters more attractive for investment," said Gowda.

He also said that India is finalising plans to increase the number of chemicals to be covered by mandatory certification for the benefit of human lives and society.