The market size of chemical and petrochemical sector is expected to grow to $300 billion by 2025 from the existing $165 billion and to attract foreign participation, India is revisiting its policies for chemical and petrochemical sector, said DV Sadananda Gowda, Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers, on Thursday.

Citing an example, the Minister said the country would need five more crackers by 2025 and another 14 by 2040 and these crackers alone will require a cumulative investment of $ 65 billion.

“We are planning to extend financial incentive based on sales similar to what is being extended in our pharmaceutical sector. We are also tweaking our policies to strengthen our chemical industrial cluster which we call as PCPIRs (Petroleum, Chemicals, and Petrochemical Investment Regions) and plastic parks, Gowda said while addressing a virtual meet specifically relating to Latin America and the Caribbean organised by FICCI.

“Together, these supportive government policies will offer one of the best environments to do business in India as far as chemicals and petrochemical sector is concerned,” he said.

He said India is already one of the largest manufacturers and exporters of generic medicines across the world. According to him, India is the only country with largest number of USFDA-compliant pharmaceutical plants (more than 262 including APIs) outside of the US. Indian pharma, expected to grow to $65 billion by 2024, exports pharma products worth $20 billion to various countries, he said.

“We have recently launched schemes for development of seven mega parks — three bulk drug parks and four medical devices parks — across country. New manufacturers will be eligible for Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme under which they will be eligible for financial incentives on basis of their sales for first 5-6 years,” Gowda said.

Stressing that this is good time to invest or set up manufacturing base in Indian pharma sector, the Minister said the advantage for those coming is that they have access to big markets such as US, Japan, EU and South East Asia, apart from domestic Indian market. “Anybody can contact my office if they are interested in Indian pharma sector, we will provide all possible facilitation and hand holding,” he stressed.

Similarly, he said the fertiliser sector is another an attractive sector in the country as there is huge demand for fertilisers by farmers every year. However, domestic production is itself is not enough to meet requirements of fertilisers. India is a large importer of urea and P&K fertilisers. For example, in 2018-19, India imported 7.5 million tonnes of urea, 6.6 mt of DAP, 3 mt of MOP and 0.5 mt of NPK fertiliser.

“I am told that Latin American and Caribbean countries are also net importers of chemical fertilisers. Instead of competing in market as buyers, we should be cooperating for making supply chains more efficient so that adequate quantity can be sourced at competitive prices.” he added.

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