Riyadh: Despite the global financial crisis, India hopes to achieve a GDP growth rate of seven percent this year and return to about a nine percent per annum growth within two years, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Sunday.
"We are in the midst of a major social-transformation. Our economy has grown at an average annual rate of over nine percent in the last few years," Singh said while addressing business leaders at the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry here.
He said the global economic slowdown notwithstanding, India hopes to achieve "a growth rate of over seven percent in the current financial year" and expects to bounce back to the "growth level of nine percent within two years".
India, the world's second fastest growing economy, has a young and expanding workforce, and a huge market.
Inviting entrepreneurs from Saudi Arabia to invest in his country, Singh said there is a large scope to explore investment opportunities in India, which has a "vibrant and innovative private sector".
India's growth rate was hampered last year by the global economic crisis and a poor show by monsoon at home, but has shown signs of recovery riding on a healthy manufacturing sector growth.
The government has also launched measures in the fiscal budget beginning a roll back of stimulus measures offered to the economy to enable it to tide over the economic slowdown.
The Economic Survey tabled in the Indian Parliament on February 25 predicted an economic recovery with up to 8.75 percent growth in the 2010-11 financial year.
Singh's visit, the first by an Indian Prime Minister to the Saudi Kingdom in 28 years, is expected to give a major push to its economic ties with the oil-rich country.
The Prime Minister said the global financial crisis has thrown up a broad agenda for global action and reforms.
"The role of emerging economies such as India and Saudi Arabia within the G-20 framework and otherwise will be crucial to the restructuring of the global economic and financial architecture," he said.
PTI
