ROME, April 19 (Reuters) - Italy's main business association criticised "disappointing" economic growth plans from Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right government and said spending controls were likely to hurt investment.
"The programme of reforms is disappointing with regards to concrete actions to be taken for growth and competitiveness of the system," Giampaolo Galli, director-general of employers' federation Confindustria, told a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
Earlier this year, Berlusconi announced a reform plan aimed at boosting Italian annual economic growth to 3-4 percent within 5 years, compared to 1.3 percent in 2010, but gave few details on how that goal would be achieved.
Italy, one of the world's slowest-growing economies over the past decade, also carries one of the heaviest public debt burdens, equivalent to some 120 percent of gross domestic product.
Galli also expressed concern about steps needed to balance public finances in 2013 and 2014, saying they are likely to hit public investment as well as primary spending.
The government aims to cut the budget deficit to 3.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2011 and 2.7 percent in 2012 from 4.6 percent last year.
It wants to lower the deficit by 25 billion euros between 2011 and 2012 using measures such as cutting funding to local government, delaying retirement and freezing public sector pay.
It is then targeting further budget cuts of more than 35 billion euros between 2013 and 2014, aiming to bring public finances in line.
"To be succesful, such an effort calls for a redesign of spending mechanisms and a redrawing of the perimeter of the state in the economy and society," Galli said. (Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte, writing by Catherine Hornby, editing by Stephen Nisbet)