Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu,recently reviewed the sectoral export promotion plans prepared by Ministries and Departments of the Government of India. The Commerce Ministry is focusing on nine sectors- gems and jewellery, leather, textile and apparel, engineering, electronics, chemicals and petrochemicals, pharma, agri and allied and marine products – to boost exports.
This was the third inter-ministerial meeting on Sectoral Export Promotion Strategy. The meeting was attended by Commerce Secretary, DGForeign Trade(DGFT),Secretaries of Textiles and Chemicals and Petrochemicals, other senior officers from Ministries and Departments of Electronics, MSME, Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Defence Production.
The Commerce Minister appreciated the inter-ministerial teamwork leading to formulation of the current sectoral export strategy. He urged the ministries to work on tapping the opportunities with countries in this region, particularly in South Asia, as there is huge potential to increase India’s exports. He proposed that possible barter arrangements with specific countries may be explored. The Minister emphasised the need to create more jobs in India with a focus on labour-intensive manufacturing SEZs. He also suggested that the possibility of collaborative exports in partnership with other countries may be explored. Ministries should involve not just the Export Promotion Councils but also the strong regional trade associations to reach out to potential exporters. Suresh Prabhu asked the line ministries to adhere to India’s WTO commitments while designing their export promotion policies. He suggested for holding a separate meeting on the services sector to examine the issues relating to remittances and other capital flows.The Commerce Minister emphasised that China and USA are emerging opportunities andindustries which are relocating from China on account of rising labour cost may be invited to invest in India after immediately revising regulatory procedures.