Govt reforms to make 8% GDP growth achievable: Pranab Mukherjee

Kolkata: President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said political stability and new initiatives taken by the government will help India emerge as an attractive investment destination and make an 8 per cent growth rate 'achievable'.

"We may soon achieve eight per cent rate of growth which is not beyond our reach," he said.

The GDP growth rate of eight percent is achievable if we make united efforts in this direction, Mukherjee said.

Mukherjee said that for better economic performance, a re-energised manufacturing sector is crucial.

Speaking at the 185th anniversary of Calcutta Chambers of Commerce, Mukherjee called for "out of box" solutions and technological interventions to handle country's problems which cannot be solved using normal ways of finding solutions.

The President said we will have to bring "technology, scientific applications and innovative approach" to solve the problems of the country.

"We must emphasise on finding technological solutions... We shall have to keep in mind that there are various challenges. We have to think innovative and out of box solutions," he said.

Mukherjee said that a prolonged global economic slowdown had affected the growth performance of all major economies.

"Barring a below five per cent growth in 2012-13, our economic growth in all other years has not been less than 6.6 percent," he said.

The President said, "We must achieve an 8 per cent plus growth to achieve our objective of alleviation of poverty, hunger and other such problems.

"Various countries today consider India as an attractive investment destination because of political stability and government's new initiatives like Swachh Bharat, Make in India, Digital India, Skill India, etc," he said.

During the heydays of country's growth, exports grew over 20 percent and contributed substantially to the GDP, he said.

The President said although the exports have stagnated in the last three years, the import bill has also dwindled, helping India to keep the current account deficit to manageable levels.

"We must emphasise on finding the technological solutions to our problems," he said.

The President also welcomed the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

He said Japan has been the largest contributor to some of the key infrastructure projects like Delhi Metro.

"Since 2003-04, India has been largest beneficiary of Japanese assistance," Mukherjee said.

He further said that foreign exchange reserves at USD 353 billion as of October-end are also at comfortable levels, giving a cushion to meet any crisis, he said.