Kumar said India's long coastline, large refining capacity and a satisfactory R&D capacity are the strengths for the growth of the chemical industry, but observed that ease of doing business still needs to improve further. He said imports from China and South East Asia continue to dominate, as raw material cost and availability pose challenges for domestic businesses.

The Minister asserted that ‘Make In India' campaign is the key driver for the chemical industry as there exist opportunity for import substitution in many petrochemical derivatives. He further said that implementation of GST would bring manufacturing costs down, thus making Indian products competitive.

The Minister also observed that the Indian chemical industry, which employs nearly 2 million people, requires 8.5 lakh skilled technicians. He lamented that current infrastructure to impart skill training is inadequate, as a result most of the training is taking place on site.

Kumar said that in a bid to address the issue of skill development, the government is planning to set up Central Institutes of Chemical Engineering & Technology at different locations where the chemical industry has significant presence. The Minister announced that the first such institute will come up in Mumbai.

IndiaChem, jointly organized by the Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals and FICCI is the largest event of chemicals and petrochemicals industry in India. Iran is the partner country this year, while Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha are participating as partner states. A host of other countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Turkey, US and Belgium  are participating through institutional and corporate stalls.

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