An official delegation led by the Minister of State for Industry is to hold talks at Greenbrier (USA) with 30 petrochem and chemical industry leaders including Exxon, Total, BASF and Dow Corning. The chief aim of the meeting was to seek higher flows (upto 100%) of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the proposed new petroleum, chemicals and petrochemicals (PCPIRs) investment regions.
Each region was proposed to cover about 250 sq. km more than the special economic zones (SEZs) and are to be located in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal, Orissa and Karnataka. The PCIPRs have been planned to optimise the gains of India's competitive advantages in this sector, where growth is envisaged to boost manufacturing, augment exports and generate large scale direct and indirect employment.
The petroleum, chemicals and petrochemicals sector in India currently constitutes 1.9% of global production. With the steady growth over the years, the size of the industry is currently estimated at US$30 billion accounting for 3% of GDP. By setting up the new regions, the industry is expected to reach US$60 billion by 2012.
05-Jun-06 
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