Hooda for common strategy to resolve economic crisis

Chandigarh, Nov 4 (UNI) Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today called upon various states to join hands to develop a common strategy to not only face the current economic crisis, but to also build on the Centre's initiatives to achieve reasonable economic growth.

The Chief Minister was speaking at a conference of Chief Ministers of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh organised by The Economic Times here today.

Mr Hooda pointed out that international community was also coming together and calling for a united action to ward off the current economic crisis.

He said that under the circumstances, the states needed a churning of fiscal policies.

''Though we are impressing upon the Central government for taking additional measures under the fiscal and monetary regime to tide over the crisis by facilitating price stability, financial stability and growth, yet the State Governments also need to act quickly,'' he said.

''Faced with liquidity crunch, when the private sector is wary of investing its scarce resources in projects, Public Private Partnerships become the best model for attracting private investments. The sharing of risks and involvement of the government bolsters the private sector to invest apart from facilitating financial involvement of the banks and financial institutions,'' he said.

''We intend to use this model for implementation of project across multiple sectors,'' he added.

As a part of demand side management, he said there was a case for increased public spending.

The Haryana government intended to set up a mechanism for effective monitoring and implementation of various existing and new schemes for rural and urban development.

UNI MA MP AS2059