NEW DELHI - India should achieve seven percent growth next year with a good monsoon, and a target of eight to nine percent growth in the medium term is eminently feasible, given that our domestic savings rate is now as high as 35 percent of GDP, said the Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, at the opening plenary of the prestigious India Economic Summit in New Delhi on Sunday.

The Summit, organized jointly by the World Economic Forum and CII, is celebrating 25 years in India with the theme ‘India’s Next Generation of Growth.’

Speaking on ‘Resilient India: 25 years of Economic and Social Growth,’ Dr Singh said India is looking to the future with confidence and hope. With the focus strongly on rapid and inclusive growth, the Prime Minister said sectors like education and healthcare in particular, amongst a host of other challenges, required sustained attention and spending of six percent and 1.5 to two percent of GDP respectively.

He called for increased private investment and more public - private partnerships in both physical and social infrastructure in the country.

India welcomed not only more FDI but also portfolio investment in equity in Indian companies, said Dr Singh. He assured an investor-friendly environment in a number of sectors in Agro-processing, nearly all areas of industry and services.

Acknowledging climate change as a major concern for the entire globe, Dr Singh said India was committed to work with all like-minded nations on this, and hoped for a purposive and positive outcome in Copenhagen.

India had an Action Plan in place with eight key missions, he said, while calling on industrialized nations to share their technologies and capabilities with the developing nations for a concerted response to global environmental sustainability.

Another concern for India was its ‘unstable neighbourhood,’ said Dr. Singh, and reiterated his call for international collaboration and a united response to terror.

Noting that India had fared better than many other countries in the global economic crisis, the Prime Minister observed that the path to global recovery would be long and uncertain, though the worst seemed to be behind us.

Dr. Singh acknowledged that India, moving forward, needed reforms in governance, particularly at the state and local-bodies level. India’s financial sector too required a broad agenda of reform, covering long term debt markets, corporate bond markets, development of insurance and pension sectors, he added.

Dr Klaus Schwabb, Founder and Executive Chairman, WEF, pointed out that few countries have the growth potential of India. As India looks to its next generation of growth, critical issues like inclusive development, integration, infrastructure, power, climate change and sustainability would take centre stage at this year’s Summit which has drawn 600 + delegates from all over the world.

The next major challenge is to make India’s future growth inclusive, said Mr Venu Srinivasan, President, CII, and Chairman and Managing Director, TVS Motor Company, India. He assured the Prime Minister that Indian industry was fully aligned to the nation’s inclusive goals. (ANI)