Chennai: Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) would focus on "manufacturing competitiveness" in the current fiscal and would also carry out a study with Mckinsey focusing on the country's manufacturing competitiveness vis-à-vis China.

Addressing his first press meet after taking over as CII president, Ashok Soota said that CII's attention in the Southern region in 2002-03 would be centred on development of human resources, infrastructure and technology.

"These factors will be some of the key determinants of competitiveness," he added.

Stating that the CII would adopt a two-pronged strategy to achieve competitiveness, he said the first part would be made up of industry action, with companies taking initiatives to benchmark with best international norms and improving competitiveness.

The second would relate to government action, including domestic policy reforms coupled with external sector reforms at the centre and state levels.

A sustained gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of eight per cent would not be possible unless the industry annually grew by 10 per cent.

He said to ensure that the country was among the top 20 on the world economic forum's growth competitiveness index by 2010 the current fiscal would have to witness a minimum economic growth rate of 5.2 per cent, which could rise to even six per cent if the conditions were favourable.

PTI