NEW DELHI: (AMN) The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Wednesday asked the Public Sector to ensure high standards of corporate accountability. Speaking at the function after presenting the MOU and SCOPE Excellence awards in here Singh asserted that this sector could contribute significantly in strengthening the country’s economy. The Prime Minister said that government was attempting to give more autonomy and flexibility to the public sector enterprises to make them more competitive. He referred to the creation of new category of Maharatna companies which have been given more powers to take on global competition aggressively.
Hailing the role of central public sector undertakings, he called for improving the quality of human resource for greater successes. The Prime Minister said that the public sector weathered the impact of global economic downturn successfully due to its resilience with the active support from public sector banks. Dr. Singh said more and more public sector enterprises are entering the capital market and are receiving encouraging response from investors. He cited the recent examples of coal India and manganese ore India limited. Talking about the role of public sector enterprises in the social sector he said that the Board for Reconstruction of public sector enterprises recommended revival of 59 out of the 67 cases examined by it. He added 20 are showing profits and 11 others have been making it for the last three years. Sofar 39 units have been revived.
"In some sectors, there is also a need for our public sector enterprises to explore global opportunities. In particular, we need to step up our search for raw material assets. The government is working on a policy to support our public sector enterprises in this effort," Prime Minister said.
Earlier, he presented awards to several public sector enterprises for their outstanding performance in the respective categories. The Minister for Heavy Industries Vilas Rao Deshmukh was also present on the occasion