New Delhi, Oct 30 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday said the country’s economic growth rate could touch 9-10 percent in the near future even though it faced challenges with regards to social and physical infrastructure.

Speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, the prime minister said the challenge was to ensure equitable growth across the country and a great deal depended on the quality of leadership and government at the state and local levels.

‘We should aim to sustain annual growth rates of 9 to 10 percent,’ Singh said.

‘We have to increase investments in physical and social infrastructure, paying particular attention to the needs of our agriculture and the transformation of our rural economy,’ Manmohan Singh said.

‘The fact that our savings rate are as high as 35 percent of our GDP (gross domestic product) suggests that what I am saying is a realisable goal,’ he added.

The prime minister also said attention should be paid at building the economies of states and rural areas, which accounted for a majority of India’s population.

‘India lives in the states. These initiatives need to be carried for they seek to improve the productivity of our farm economy and the income of our farmers where 65 percent of our population depends on agriculture,’ he said.

‘India cannot be built from Delhi alone.’