Page 11 - Cost

Interview

Impact of Cost Competitiveness to

bring Sustainable Growth of Business

Shri Rajeev Mehrotra
Chairman & Managing Director
RITES LTD.

system plays a vital role in maintaining cost
Q. In your opinion, what are the major competitive edge on sustainable basis. Focus
driving factors of a country’s competitiveness? on manufacturing sector and in creating
What is the position of India in this regard? enabling infrastructure will defnitely create
competitive edge for Indian companies.
A.Te major driving factors for any country
to retain its competitiveness vis-à-vis others Q. How is cost competitiveness benefcial to
are availability of reliable infrastructure to the proftability of the frm?
create capacity for production and services,
availability of competent manpower along with
adequate system support and data monitoring, A.Te cost competitiveness includes a
quality of output including quality of comprehensive range of production facilities
intermediary processes etc. Further, country to monitoring and controlling costs, timely
needs to leverage its embedded strength in decisions regarding appropriate technology
terms of natural & human resources. and implementing projects of appropriate size
and technology. Also, to be cost competitive,
However, for a country to remain competitive a frm has to eliminate the inefciencies in its
in long run and increase its overall productivity, business processes on a continuous basis. Put
focus is also required to ensure sustainable together the industry achieves and maintains
& inclusive growth, have robust regulatory cost competitiveness. In the global scenario,
framework in place and provide mechanism the proftability pre-supposes a competitive
for innovative fnancing. edge and will defnitely create value for various
stakeholders.
In Indian perspective although lot of
developments have taken place in last two
decades in creating infrastructure and Q. How does cost competitiveness help
availability of trained manpower, still it is not the industry to crystallize thinking and build
at par with facilities available to companies in
other developing economies like China, South systems within the company to minutely capture
Korea etc. Our focus has been on service and evaluate the value of all the resources?
based industries rather than production based
industries. A.With maturity and experience gained
within a industry, best practices and systems
Te manpower base in India is exposed to latest emerge and would drive individual frm to
IT and other communication & management attain the quality benchmarks. Industries with
technologies, including fnancial system and experience identify strategic resources & plan
banking system. A strong cost management for their efective deployment.

11 www.icmai.in The Institute of Cost Accountants of India