Chennai, Oct 8 (IANS): Kerala does not and cannot compete with states like Tamil Nadu in manufacturing but has been logging around 10 percent economic growth, as it has chalked out its plans differently as compared to other states, said an official.

"Kerala's economic growth rate is around 10 percent. Last year also the state grew by around 10 percent. It is true the growth of traditional agriculture is on the decline. But the state cannot compete with Tamil Nadu in manufacturing area," said INKEL Ltd. managing director T.Balakrishnan.

INKEL is a public-private partnership (PPP) initiative which brings together Kerala government agencies and prominent global investors and NRI industrialists and businessmen.

Balakrishnan was speaking at the 'Suminfra 2013', a summit on infrastructure organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Balakrishnan said the Kerala government chalked out its industrialisation plans differently as compared to other states.

He said when other states went in for mega manufacturing projects, Kerala decided to focus on developing its tourism sector.

According to K.S.Srinivas, the state industries and information technology department secretary, the state is developing the National Investment Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ) identifying 20 nodes instead of one big contiguous area.

He said the NIMZ is expected to involve an outlay of Rs.48,825 crore and the state is targeting industries like electronics, information technology, hardware and others.

Srinivas said oil company Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. is expanding its refinery capacity at Kochi which offers good potential for downstream industries in the oil sector.

He said the Kochi Metro is expected to be ready in three years' time and the state is also planning mono rail project at Thiruvananthapuram, for which the detailed project report is being prepared.

On the road sector, the state will be improving 551 km at an outlay of around Rs.8,900 crore, he said.