Govt to focus on sectors hit by global crisis: President

President Pratibha Patil

NEW DELHI: Expecting the economy to slow down in the current fiscal amid global recession, President Pratibha Patil said here the new Government will focus on adversely-affected sectors like infrastructure, exports, SMEs, and housing to restore the growth momentum.

Presenting the agenda of the second UPA government at the joint session of Parliament, Patil said the new regime will develop a roadmap for listing public sector units, co-ordinate with other countries to bring back illegal money stashed in secret bank accounts, recapitalize public sector banks, and bring in the pension reforms bill.

"The current financial year is expected to see a slowing down of growth on account of the global recession.

Our immediate priority must be to focus on management of the economy that will counter the effect of the global slowdown by a combination of sectoral and macro-level policies," she added.

The new Government, the President said, will focus on sectors like small and medium enterprises (SMEs), exports, textiles, commercial vehicles, infrastructure and housing as they are adversely hit by the global financial meltdown.