Kamal Nath makes a case for focus on employment generation

New Delhi, Nov 17 (UNI) Union Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath today said the focus of reforms should progressively shift towards employment generation in the coming years.

''While the first phase of reforms during the first 15 years focused on creating strong foreign exchange reserves and strengthening institutions such as the stock exchanges, the next phase should clearly focus on employment generation. This would be clearly dictated by the demographic structure of the country,'' the minister said while speaking at a session on 'Reforms for Sustained Growth' at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit here.

Mr Nath said the challenge of reforms lay in ensuring that the ''benefits of economic reforms reach those sections of society that do not even know about it.'' CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said reforms are an 'inevitable necessity' but called for enhancing public investment, particularly in social sectors such as health and education.

''There is a need to reform our understanding that our population is an asset and not a liability. The government has to invest enough in the youth of the country to provide them with the requisite skill, education and health. While I have nothing against corporate profits, it also needs to be kept in mind that the reforms process cannot be solely preoccupied with increasing corporate profits,'' said Mr Yechury.

Former commerce minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) General Secretary Arun Jaitley identified physical infrastructure and social sector funding as the two most critical areas for the next phase of reforms process.

''A lot of political priority need to be given to these two areas,'' he said.

Mr Yechury said greater public investment in social and physical infrastructure would act as a catalyst for attracting higher investment but added that there was a need for 'course correction' in the reforms process with sharper focus on creating social infrastructure.

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