In his inaugural address at the Chemtech World Expo '98 exhibition at the Mumbai exhibition grounds, Goregaon in north Mumbai, Barnala said in order to ensure that the domestic industry is not exposed to unfair competition and vagaries of dumping, it is imperative that anti-dumping investigations are expeditiously carried out.

Import tariffs are being lowered in wake of liberalisation, he said. Although lower tariff barriers help in attaining competitiveness and spur economic growth, it also poses a challenge particularly in recessionary conditions when overseas producers tend to dump their surplus production below cost thereby debilitating domesetic industry.

Barnala said the domestic chemical industry's turnover is likely to cross Rs 1,000-billion mark by the turn of the century. The industry also accounts for 10 per cent of the total exports during 1996-97. Total exports of chemicals and allied sectors in 1996-97 was to the tune of Rs 128 billion.

With globalisation, he said the chemical industry has to gear up to face intense domestic and global competition. It is therefore imperative that to sustain growth, the industry must adopt newer technologies and modern management practices in all spheres including production, marketing, and finance.

Barnala said the industry should invest in research and development and government efforts alone will not be adequate. Emphasis should be laid on quality, technology upgradation, continuous developments and discoveries. To meet this goal, the industry should accept the fact that every manufacturing unit must have an updated and strict quality control system and R&D unit.

Barnala said the centre is offering various incentives to promote and accelerate growth in the industrial sector. It has liberalised and simplified policies to attract foreign investment in the country. The chemical sector has been liberalised and considerably delicensed.

Although the economy is besotted with problems like high cost of capital, power, lack of adequate infrastructure, the government is trying to resolve them and make the domestic industry competitive, he said. The Chemtech World Expo '98 has over 396 companies- -156 from 17 countries and 240 from India showcasing their technologies, equipment and instruments for chemical and petrochemical drugs and pharmaceutical, fertiliser, oil and gas, power and energy as well as environment management sectors.

Expo national executive council chairman DK Verma said that special attractions were country pavilions by Germany, France Poland and Holland. Apart from the exhibition, a two-day international conference on November 19 and November 20 and EU-India Business Forum on November 21 and November 22 will also be held, he said. A buyer-seller meet `Chem-Mart' for the drugs and pharmaceutical sector has been arranged on November 21, the exhibition's last day.