Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday asked the industry to look at ways to increase the contribution of the manufacturing sector to 25 per cent of GDP and set up 10 R&D labs or innovation centres to become a global leader in technology.

He also said the industry should make all-out efforts to increase the share of exports to about 25 per cent of the GDP (gross domestic product).

Addressing the closing session of the DPIIT’s webinar on ‘Make in India for the World’, he talked about a five-point vision for boosting manufacturing and promoting exports.

“How can we really take our manufacturing contribution to the GDP to 25 per cent? Can we increase our global trade to 10 per cent of the size of our economy?… These are ambitious targets but, I think, doable.

“Can we look at being one of the top-three nations in services exports? Can we look at supporting MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) to increase their participation in foreign trade,” Goyal said.

Currently, manufacturing accounts for about 15 per cent of the country’s GDP.

The minister added that Indian companies should support goods manufactured locally.

He added that most of the suggestions that came out of this webinar such as technology transfer and harmonisation of regulations are possible to implement.