Date:23/03/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/03/23/stories/2003032300550300.htm

Southern States - Karnataka

`SEZ will help country earn valuable foreign exchange'

By Our Staff Correspondent

MANGALORE MARCH 22. Speakers at a one-day workshop on "Coastal Special Economic Zone (SEZ) - implications on development and environment," have called for better understanding of the co-relation between the environment and development, especially in the coastal areas where development and environmental protection are separated by a hairline. The workshop was jointly organised by the Centre for Environmental Education, Research, and Advocacy (CEERA) and National Law School of India University, Bangalore, (NLSIU) under the auspices of the Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwar Law College here today.

Speaking after inaugurating the workshop, the Chairman of the Coastal Agenda Task Force, N. Vinay Hegde, said India had adopted the socialistic pattern of economy on which the curtains had come down with the collapse of the USSR. India scurried to find an acceptable economic model and hastily accepted globalisation in 1990. He said India was a foreign exchange-intensive country as 60 percent of its oil imports and armaments were purchased with hard currency, and the slightest imbalance in the economy would put the country in difficulty. This was a strong reason for the country to earn foreign exchange through SEZs and intensify activities in manufacturing, processing, and exports where foreign partners participated and India gained through tariffs in foreign currency. The SEZs also would improve the acceptability of Indian goods in the export market and help the country in benchmarking quality. Mr. Hegde said the coastal region was strategically located for good trade relations with East African countries, West Asia and the Far East, Europe, and the U.S., but it was up to the framers of policy and the Government to create a suitable investment climate in the country.

The Deputy Commissioner, Arvind Srivastava, who is also the member-secretary of the Coastal Agenda Task Force, said that industrial development and environmental protection had to go hand in hand. New laws would be framed while embarking on new industrial ventures but they needed social sanction to remove prejudices.