Policy issues hampering India’s growth: Lakshmi Mittal

Lakshmi Mittal, chairman of Arcelor Mittal feels that concerns over policy and approval issues in India will continue to remain.

Speaking to NDTV’s Ira Dugal at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mittal said that the government is aware about the policy issues and is confident that they would be sorted out soon. “I’m not worried much about India’s future growth,” he added.

Below is the complete interview. Also watch the accompanying video.

Ira: In emerging economy, the growth is slowing; the global growth scenario is slowing.  Is this going to be a worrying year 2012?

Mittal: No. India is still a great potential; I am not worried about India's future growth. We are on the right trajectory.  We are affected by the global growth story and uncertainty in Europe but this doesn’t dismay us from growing.

Ira:  You have been critical of the way the Indian government has managed certain aspects, particularly regulations in steel sector for instance?

Mittal: Everyone is concerned about the progress and the slowness.  Clearly, I am also concerned about the slowness and tardiness in some of the approvals.

Ira:  Are you hopeful that the government will turn that around? You are having constant discussions with the government particularly on your projects?

Mittal:  No. I am very pleased with my discussions with the government. At least, they are of the issues and they are trying to resolve them.  We have lot of other issues, so we need to work through this.

Ira: What the steel sector is going to look like this year? China is slowing potentially and that can have impact on metal markets. How much of a difference is it going to make on the margin of 2012 versus 2011?

Mittal: There is definitely slow growth all over the world impacted by Europe and other western world. We will not see as much growth as we saw in 2011 or 2010.  But I still believe that the 2 to 3 per cent growth will be there in the global steel industry.

Ira: One last word on protectionism, there seem to be a real worry and I think that at Davos forum also it’s being discussed. Are you concerned particularly from US economy?

Mittal:  Definitely there are issues on the protectionism. When there is no level playing field between the countries then protectionism comes in. For example, if China's product has a lot of incentives and the benefits and that we don't have in the Western world. As long as there is no level playing field, there are issues.

Ira: What’s the solution for those? How do you get around for a more level playing?

Mittal:  The world leaders are continuously discussing and this is a real issue. And that also changes the competitiveness scenario of the various producers.  Like Europe is not competitive because of the emerging countries and because of the currency.  So there are issues which will always be there and we need to continue to find solutions.

Ira: What this year is going to be like? What are the biggest opportunities and challenges you are looking ahead?

Mittal:  Challenges are very clear. We always continue to monitor global economic scenario and we have to really see what the impact of such global economic slowdown on steel business is.  Steel is basic raw material for any country's growth and it is a clear proxy for economy. However, opportunities will always be there. We continue to grow in the mining sector. We continue to look forward to opportunities in the growth-oriented countries. So there will be opportunities, there will be challenges. This year challenges are more than the opportunities.