Construction gets major investment share: Assocham

CHANDIGARH: Punjab attracted Rs 4.97 lakh crore investment during the 2011 calendar year, out of Rs 137 lakh crore the country got, a study has revealed. The state, the food bowl of the country, could attract only 3.6% of country’s total investments. The year-on-year growth was just 2% during the period.
Releasing a paper titled “Growth Agenda for Punjab,” the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India said, “There are about 762 live projects and with over Rs 2.47 lakh crore, the real estate sector accounted for a lion’s share of 49.7% of total live investments, followed by services (34.1%), electricity (11.9%) and manufacturing (4.1%).”
“Over 75% of these live investments are in different stages of implementation while about 11% are in the announcement stage,” said D.S.Rawat, national secretary general of Assocham.
Private sector contributed a whopping 89% of total investments attracted by the state.
However, Punjab accounted for about 5.5% of total investments made by private sector and less than even 1% of total investments made by government sources across the country.
Growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 7.8%, the gross state domestic product (GSDP) of Punjab grew from over Rs 96 lakh crore to over Rs 140 lakh crore between 2004-05 and 2009-10, according to the strategy paper prepared by the Assocham research bureau.
Punjab, with economic growth of 7.8% CAGR, is considerably lagging behind its regional peers of Haryana (9.7%) and Himachal Pradesh (8.31%).
Services sector accounted for over 43% of GSDP of Punjab, clocking a CAGR of over 8% during the course of five years. Besides, agriculture and allied activities contributed about 25% of the SGDP thereby registering a CAGR of over 2% while industrial sector accounted for over 31% and expanded by over 13% CAGR, said Assocham.
Manufacturing and construction emerged as the most significant industrial activities. Manufacturing output increased by over 13% while construction activities recorded over 14% growth rate during the five years to March 2010.
With a share of over 11% in GSDP, the trade, hotels and restaurants emerged as the largest activity in the services sector followed by banking and insurance (7.1%) and transport, storage and communication (6.7%). These sectors expanded by 5.8%, 17.9% and 8.9% respectively. Deceleration of agri sector in Punjab is an issue of grave concern more so as, apart from being the prime source of raw material to the industry, but surpluses generated from the sector are traditional sources of investments in secondary and tertiary sectors. “Maintaining a healthy agriculture growth is a pre-requisite for comprehensive development of Punjab,” said Rawat.