Davos:
A panel of leaders are talking about South Asia at the World Economic Forum 2016 at Davos. Here are highlights of the session:
Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ranil Wickramsinghe- We are restructuring our economy
- We have got a Free Trade Agreement with Pakistan, India, Singapore and China
- We are focusing on Skills, PPP to train for jobs
- In private sector all are complaining that the biggest constraint will be skills.
- We are looking at social inclusion for private sector to come in.
- We cannot be a low wage economy any more.
- Education, healthcare, Housing - we have a Million Jobs Programme
Chanda Kochhar, CEO, ICICI Bank- Both job creation and skill development crucial.
- 40 per cent of population in India less than 20 years.
- 10 million people added every year to age group.
- We were growing on the back of services sector.
- We are promoting manufacturing now through Make in India
- In terms of creating jobs, we are shifting focus
- In terms of skill, we have a huge gap to meet
- The entire India is working towards Skill India
- Looking at huge amount of PPP
- Target is to skillfully train about 400 million by 2020
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif- Government is pumping more money into SMEs
- Write easy loan to applicants
- 50 per cent are females among these
- Focusing its energies on this particular thing
- We want young people and SMEs to form a part of the major industry that will produce goods for export and Pakistani markets