Wednesday, September 6 2006 16:37 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: India needs to accelerate its economic growth beyond the existing seven-eight percent and this can be achieved if policies are formulated for augmenting the services sector through exports, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said here today (Sept 6, 2006).

"India's biggest asset is its workforce and when the world looks at India, it looks at its skilled workforce. The mass of economic activity is now in East Asia," the minister told a seminar on Boosting Services Exports.

"The services sector along with the legal services needs to be opened up to the world and then only can we meet global challenges. Then only can we achieve 15 percent growth rate in the services sector," Kamal Nath added.

The services sector of India comprises nearly 54 percent of the country's gross domestic product and is growing at a rate of 10 percent annually.

The minister also told the seminar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) - that in order to boost the export of the services sector, reformation of the educational sector from the primary school level is imperative.

He also stressed on the need for foreign direct investment in the legal services sector.