INDIA’S ECONOMY: ROBUST AND RESILIENT

INDIA GROWTH STORY INTACT, WILL CONTINUE TO GROW FASTER ON DOMESTIC DEMAND: ADB PRESIDENT

The Economic Times, May 3, 2011

NEW DELHI: Growth in emerging Asian economies, including India and China, is likely to remain robust and resilient even after the global crisis due to strong domestic demand, Asian Development Bank's new president Takehiko Nakao said.

Speaking on Thursday, ahead of the ADB's annual meeting, Nakao conceded that the current account surpluses in emerging economies had depleted to 2% from 10% because of the economic crisis.

However, he said, "India, China and other emerging economies would continue to grow faster than other developed economies because of strong domestic demand and strong production capacity in the region." The way forward for these economies is to continue attracting investments, especially in infrastructure development, Nakao said, adding that this can be done by good taxation and mobilising domestic savings.

Admitting that private sector has been a key contributor to Asia's economic boom and a powerful tool in the fight against poverty, he said there still remains considerable untapped potential for drawing on the entrepreneurship, talent and productivity in our region. "India needs to upgrade its services sector to absorb millions of workforce that gets generated each year. Besides, government needs to enhance private sector participation by creating conducive business environment to expand the sources and volume of available infrastructure financing," he said.

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