“Coming out of three years of de-growth,
the industry is stabilizing this year to gather momentum over the next
two years, thanks to reforms and policy measures in the infrastructure
sector,” Excon chairman and JCB India Ltd. chief executive Vipin Sondhi
told reporters here.
Excon is a biennial expo of the
earthmoving and construction equipment industry, whose eighth edition is
being held this year from Wednesday at the Bangalore International
Exhibition Centre (BIEC) to showcase its products and technologies for
stakeholders in core sectors of the economy, especially infrastructure.
“Initiatives of the new (central)
government have made the macro parameters favourable to the industry.
With the economy reviving and inflation under control, some reforms such
as opening up the insurance and defence sectors for more FDI (foreign
direct investment) will lead to more infrastructure projects requiring
our equipment,” Sondhi said.
Recent decisions to allow the road
transport and highways ministry to clear projects worth Rs.1,000crore
excluding the land cost, compensation for developers for delays by other
stakeholders and allowing developers to exit a project after two years
from the built-operate-transfer route will help the users of the
industry’s equipment to fast track several projects that were held up
for various reasons.
“Though de-growth has dipped our
industry’s market size to $2.8 billion from over $3 billion three-four
years ago when the GDP (gross domestic product) was growing at eight
percent, we are setting a $5-billion target for 2020 in anticipating of
huge investments in the core sectors of the economy, including
infrastructure, which requires about $1 trillion,” Sondhi said.
Organised by the Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII) in partnership with Indian and overseas associations,
the five-day South Asia’s largest international construction equipment
and technology trade fair will focus on “Make India – Building
Infrastructure, Building the Nation”.
To be flagged by Union Road Transport,
Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari, the expo has attracted
about 800 exhibitors, including 270 overseas firms.
Spread over 220,000 square meters of
display area, the fair will witness launch of about 200 products and
participation by 22 countries, including Britain, China, Finland,
Germany, Italy, South Korea, Spain and Turkey.
“The scope and reach of Excon has been
growing over the years and we hope to see more number of industries and
visitors to make it the biggest construction equipment industry expo in
South East Asia,” Sondhi added.
