Chennai, Jun 16 (IANS): The growth rate of gross state domestic product (GSDP) of the four southern states has been slowing down in recent years and requires focused attention on creating physical infrastructure, time management in policy making and implementation, said the Confederation of Indian Industry here Thursday.
Confederation of Indian Industry-Southern Region (CII-SR) chairman T.T. Ashok said: "Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh registered a GSDP growth rate of 7.4 percent while for Kerala and Karnataka it was 8.1 percent and 8.5 percent, respectively. The national GDP growth average is 8.7 percent between 2005-10."
He said though the four southern states registered impressive performance in various industrial sectors, they did not keep up their pace of growth.
According to him, creating huge physical infrastructure, managing talent availability, time management in policy making and implementation, and building the capacity in industry to move up in the value chain were some of the challenges that were to be addressed to sustain south India's growth momentum.
He said the industry and the respective state governments should adopt a cluster-based growth approach, bridge physical and social infrastructure gaps and work towards environmental sustainability to ensure the region's rich potential was well capitalised.
The availability of physical infrastructure (power, roads, cargo handling capacity at ports, cold chains, housing and others) had not kept pace with the demand in recent years, said Ashok.
According to him, the base demand for power in south India would be peaking to around 75 GW in 2020. Meeting this demand will require an investment of $50-70 billion, he added.
According to him, CII-SR's major initiatives will be the setting up of solar city in Tamil Nadu, Chennai-Bangalore-Hyderabad industrial corridor and setting up of a centre of excellence on skill development here.
He said CII-SR would organise sectoral events like Excon 2011 (construction equipment technology), Foodpro (Food Processing Technology) and manufacturing summits this year to enhance the competitiveness of Indian industry.