Tuesday, April 18 2006 12:21 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today (Apr 18, 2006) said the Government was committed to address problems being faced by the Indian industry to make it globally competitive and achieve a higher economic growth rate.

Addressing the annual conference of Confederation of Indian Industry, Singh said the government would create policies to boost manufacturing growth to 12 per cent.

"Only manufacturing sector can provide enough jobs required to absorb the vast number of people who move out of agriculture," he said.

"The country needed a credible macro-economic environment, better infrastructure and supportive political and social conditions to achieve higher industrial growth," he added.

Singh said a GDP growth of 8 per cent was sustainable and the target of 10 per cent growth per year was realistic.

Emphasising on making Indian industry globally competitive, he said the government has recently set up a high-level committee on manufacturing.

The committee, headed by Singh, would make suggestions and review the progress of works under the government's national manufacturing initiative.

"Our endeavour would be to create policies to achieve 12 per cent manufacturing growth," he said.