The petrochemicals sector in India has developed substantially and the growth rate has been around 10 per cent in production and consumption of petrochemicals. The pharmaceutical sector has also maintained a continuous steady growth at about 15 per cent, he said.

At a seminar organised by Chemtech Foundation on "Growth Imperatives in Y2K -- Indian Process Industry" in Mumbai on Wednesday, a paper presented on behalf of the union minister, elicited the need to modernise and improve the efficiency by lowering operating costs. "The government is working towards minimising bureaucratic and procedural hurdles to create an investor friendly environment," it said.

According to Patel, "With the liberalised policy of the government it is expected that closely held technologies in certainspecific areas would now be more easily available. The chemical sector has attracted about 7 per cent of the total foreign collaboration approvals since 1991."

On the TRIPS agreement and New Patent Law, Patel said the time has come when government efforts alone will not be adequate and industry will have to invest more in R&D. However, the government would give the required thrust to infrastructure development, particularly energy and power.

The Chemtech Technology seminar was held to announce Asia's largest technological trade show on processing industry which will be held in Mumbai from November 19 to November 23 this year.

The conference will address the current status and identify opportunities for domestic and overseas companies in different sessions covering hydrocarbons, power, chemicals and petrochemicals, agro-chemicals, drugs and pharmaceuticals, environmental management, process engineering and R&D, according to National Executive Council for chemicals, process engineering and environmentchairman DK Verma.