COIMBATORE - Union Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran has said that the government would try to achieve seven to eight per cent growth in the industry during the current fiscal year, April 2009-March’10.

This would generate more than two million jobs every year, he said.

“(We want) to create over two million employment and this amounts to an investment of Rupees 1,55,000 crore in the industry, that is an average of Rupees 30,000 crore investment a year, generating two million employment in a year … we have to go for macro-management.

Stimulus package will be brought by the government,” Maran told a news conference here on Tuesday.

He said that the textiles industry, which was facing a crisis due to the ongoing global recession, would get a boost in the budget to be unveiled on July 6.

India’s overseas textile sales, about 13 percent of all exports, have been hit by declining demand from key markets like the United States and Europe, as well as a firming rupee.

The Indian rupee has risen 2.4 percent against the dollar so far in 2009, after declining 19 percent last year, making exports less competitive.

Earlier, Maran had said that the 52-billion dollar labour intensive industry needed more fiscal stimulus and would need investments of 300 billion rupees each year to sustain an annual growth rate of 8-10 percent. (ANI)