Assam needs Rs 2 lakh cr to pep up growth: ASSOCHAM

Guwahati: The newly-elected BJP government in Assam faces a tough task for revamping the state’s economic growth, according to the country’s apex industry association ASSOCHAM.
“The newly elected government in Assam should aim to create 35 lakh new jobs during the course of next five years by revising its industrial and agriculture policies and bring out a separate policy for information technology (IT), small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to attract investors both domestic and global,”, the ASSOCHAM said after a conclave here on Wednesday.
“Assam should aim to attract investments worth about Rs two lakh crore to attain double digit economic growth as against six per cent decadal growth clocked by the state during 2004-05 and 2014-15,” noted an ASSOCHAM agenda based on public private partnership model submitted to Assam’s chief minister, Sarbananda Sonowal by ASSOCHAM.
“Issues like dearth of good governance, unemployment, inadequate basic infrastructure especially power supply, sickness in micro, small and medium enterprises, environmental degradation, primitive  techniques and others are dogging the agriculture and industrial sectors’ growth in Assam,” said D S Rawat, ASSOCHAM general secretary while releasing a paper titled ‘Action agenda for new government of Assam.
Assam needs to perk up agriculture and allied activities as almost half of the state’s total workforce and 75 per cent of the total population is directly or indirectly engaged in this sector for their livelihood even though the agriculture sector’s share was just about 20 per cent in gross state domestic product (GSDP) in 2014-15 thereby registering a steady decline from 25 per cent in 2004-05 and clocked a meagre three per cent Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) during this period, noted the paper prepared by the ASSOCHAM Economic Research Bureau.
Industry performance in Assam too paints a grim picture as the sector recorded a meagre 18 per cent share in GSDP and grew at just about five per cent CAGR between 2004-05 and 2014-15.
On the investment front, Assam attracted investments worth over Rs one lakh crore thereby recording over 11 per cent CAGR during 2006-07 to 2015-16.
“Effective implementation of the investment projects hold key to growth of industry sector in Assam that will in turn help in creating lakhs of fresh job opportunities for about 31 per cent of youth population that forms the workforce in the state,” said Rawat.