Government will do anything to help Tata, says Kamal Nath

New Delhi, Sep 4: Amidst a series of controversies, Minister of Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath Thursday said the government will do anything to help all the parties arrive at a convergence so that Tata Motors' Nano project in West Bengal fructifies.

“The government will do anything to help all parties arrive at a convergence so that the Tata investment in West Bengal fructifies,” Kamal Nath told reporters at the annual convention of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

“Whatever is happening is not good for the investment image of India and will affect the country's image as an investment destination,” Kamal Nath added.

The government doesn't want that Tata Motors is forced to move its project from the state and will do everything possible to bring convergence, he said.

Kamal Nath was also hopeful that India's auto exports should reach USD 25 billion in the next decade.

He said the government will play its part by providing the "enabling policy framework" and added that the auto sector should take advantage of these and leverage its strengths for expanding to other parts of the world.

He further stated that by the middle of the next decade, India should be the destination of choice for design and manufacture of automotive components and vehicles in the world.

The Indian automobile industry today is all about scale, he said adding, “Maruti hopes to have a capacity of one million cars by 2010 while Hyundai is looking at 600,000 cars in another year.”

Toyota is talking about 200,000 cars by year end, the Nissan Renault venture is planning a capacity of 400,000 cars and General Motors and Honda are setting up new plants, as is Tata for its Nano, Kamal Nath added.

He underlined that the employment in the automotive sector would go up three times and exports nine times.

The future challenges for the Indian automobile industry would be to develop a supply base with emphasis on lower costs and economies of scale, develop technical and human capabilities, overcome infrastructural bottlenecks, stimulate domestic demand and exploit export and international business opportunities, he said.