Business Facilitation
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Successful Business Facilitation is an important component of manufacturing competitiveness which in turn is crucial to the growth of manufacturing sector. The issue of competitiveness has also come to much greater focus in the recent years in both the developed and the developing countries in the wake of globalization. Therefore countries and firms alike are compelled to readjust to the new situation and become competitive. Competitiveness in the case of manufactured products is rather hard to define because of its two basic elements - price and quality of product |
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Price comparisons without regard to quality are meaningless and quality is difficult to specify in the face of product differentiation. Competitiveness cannot simply be viewed as a country's ability to export or generate trade surpluses, since these can be brought about at least temporarily by means of artificially lowering the exchange rate and/ or compressing domestic expenditure. |
It depends on basically three sets of factors all taken together, viz. (i) the macroeconomic environment; (ii) the ability to absorb, use, and develop technology to reduce production costs, improve product quality, and innovate new products; and (iii) marketing strategy and arrangements covering such diverse factors as packaging, sales networks, and after-sales service.These factors are intimately inter-related. For example technological progress is often embodied in new plant and equipment, which is dependent on the rate of investment and economic growth, a domain of macroeconomic policy. The quest for competitiveness at firm level might result in reduction of employment to begin with. But the overall increase in competitiveness in the sector in which the firm operates would lead to enhanced opportunities that not only drive demand but also generate employment through the spread effect. There are also sub-sectors such as Textiles and Garments, Leather and Leather Products, Food Processing etc., which are good employment generators while being competitive. Special attention to these sectors would also enable employment objective achievement.
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India has to aim at achieving a long term GDP growth rate of 8 to 10 percent to substantially improve the living conditions of its people. To achieve a balanced growth of 8 to 10 per cent of the economy, the country should target a minimum manufacturing growth rate of 12 percent per annum. Jobs to the millions joining the workforce can be provided adequately only through a robust revival of manufacturing sector. |
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Policies of Government should increase the employment content of growth without sacrificing competitiveness; sub-sectors such as Textiles & Garments, Leather & Leather Products, Food Processing etc. are right candidates for such growth.
There are a number of areas where both Government and industry need to act in order that the manufacturing sector becomes competitive and thereby attracts investment and also provides necessary growth impetus to the economy.
The Business Facilitation sections aims at providing linkages to prominent institutions assisting the industry in enhancing its competitiveness. The strategies enforced by them will help in providing certain benchmarks. The international competitiveness indicators also provide a comparative analyses to enable industry and policy makers to devise right strategies in future...