"There has been a neglect of ship-building, a neglect of ports and above all a neglect of foreign trade," he said after releasing a commemorative postage stamp on the pioneer of India's transport business Walchand Hirachand.
The Prime Minister said for the last ten years, successive Finance Ministers have said India's tariff levels should move down and approach ASEAN levels.
"We have moved a great deal in this direction", he said adding "I believe we can accelerate this process now and take steps to enable a closer interaction between our economy and the economies of the ASEAN region".
"I would like to see India emerge as a major trading nation and a maritime power. To this end we must modernise our maritime infrastructure. We must also modernise our mindset," he said.
"If Walchand Hirachand was here today, he may well mock at what he may regard as a new-born enthusiasm for maritime activity, for this was in fact his obsession over three quarters of a century ago", the Prime Minister said.
He said India's policy did neglect the external dimensions of economic engagement for far too long and the country began the process of reversing this neglect a decade ago.
"Perhaps the process has had its setbacks and proceeded in fits and starts", he said adding, however, today there was a nationwide consensus and an awareness that this was the direction in which India must move.
Singh also asked the political leadership at the state level, especially in developing states, to pay closer attention to the requirements of enterprise so that "we can take modern industry and enterprise to newer regions".
Singh said visionaries and entrepreneurs like Venu Srinivasan of TVS group of companies, Narayana Murthy of Infosys, Aziz Premji of Wipro and Ramalinga Raju of Satyam were joining the ranks of Hirachands, Birlas, Tatas, Ambanis, Munjals and the Ranbaxy group to drive private enterprise.
Singh said Hirachand's greatest contribution was in shipping and shipbuilding and "it is indeed one of the saddest aspects of our industrial policy that we failed to build on the foundations created by him in this area".
The Prime Minister recalled that though by the 1950s India was in the forefront in Asian maritime activity, today it lags behind not just Japan, but also Korea and China.
"We must reverse this trend", he said, adding the imperatives of trade, the requirements of maritime and energy security and the creative enterprise of sea-faring people should once again make India a maritime nation of reckoning.
Singh added that there was a need to have sea connectivity to be more actively engaged with the economies in the East.
The Prime Minister said India needed businessmen like Hirachand who were willing to take risks."We need business leaders who are willing to tread the unbeaten path," he said.
