Leading industrialist Mukesh Ambani said on Friday that the trend of rising energy prices is a matter of great concern and that it could rise further to three-digits going forward.
"Crude oil prices are well above the $70 mark. We foresee an increase in crude price to three digits in the near future," Reliance Industries chairman, Mukesh Ambani, said at an industry conference in Mumbai on Friday.
The decline in refining growth and sluggish market would drive the price increase, he said.
"I believe the petrochemical industry should reinvest and we have to reset our thinking and must innovate to tackle these issues," he said.
According to him, India was poised to become the world's strongest country economically by 2020.
"I believe by 2020 the balance-sheet of India would be the strongest in the world. The GDP growth of India from $1.5-trillion to $5-trillion in the next ten-years will make India an economically powerful country in the world," Ambani, said.
This century belongs to India, Ambani said, adding, that economic development was now shifting to India from other parts of the world.
"Almost 40 per cent population of the world belongs to India and China and this will create a paradigm shift. Both India and China will create a huge demand as consumption of these countries will reach new heights. Thus, India is going to be a major manufacturing hub as consumption will increase," he said.
"This is the time developing countries like us realised the unrealised potential within us," he said.
The world was now very much inter-connected and an economic disruption in any country will have its effect on India.
"I believe people from the corporate sector and industry sector have the competency to tackle these issues. The European sovereign debt crisis again shows that Asia has the potential to become more powerful," Ambani said.
