Govt prepares strategy to double exports by 2014

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SME Times News Bureau | 05 Nov, 2011
The government has prepared a strategy paper for doubling of exports to USD 500 billion by 2014 during a meeting of Consultative Committee on the Commerce & Industry late evening on Friday chaired by Anand Sharma, the Union Minister of Commerce, Industry & Textiles in New Delhi.

Sharma in his opening remarks said, "The strategy paper has been prepared in the backdrop of complex global economic environment, which has seen considerable turbulence in the last few years. Barely had the world come out of the shadow of the grim recessionary period which commenced in 2008 with the clouds of uncertainty started looming large, bringing fresh fears of a double dip depression. You will appreciate that the government is conscious of maintaining the current account deficit and trade deficit within manageable limits."

Commerce Minister while quoting the report releases only day before Friday by RBI indicating that, the current account deficit has touched 3.1 percent of GDP in June this year and, therefore, it is a crucial imperative to give a concerted push on exports.

"Apart from earning valuable foreign exchange, we view exports as an instrument of providing gainful employment to millions of people across the country and enabling India to play a much larger role in a globally integrated world," he added.

The Minister informed that, after a detailed consultative exercise with the exporting community, the Commerce Ministry prepared a multi-pronged strategy for doubling exports to USD 500 billion by 2014 which envisages an annual growth of nearly 26.7 percent.

Clearly, this is a challenging task given the complexities and uncertainties of recent economic developments. The strategy paper was launched in May this for doubling India’s exports in the next three years to reach USD 500 billion by 2014.

The Strategy Paper hinges on 4 pillars –

(1) Product Strategy;
(2) Market Strategy;
(3) Technologies and R&D and
(4) Building a Brand image. At product level, we have identified sectors where we have considerable growth potential which include
   (a) engineering goods;
   (b) Basic chemical industries and organic and inorganic chemical industries,
   (c) Pharmaceutical industry and
   (d) Electronics.

Sharma emphasized that, “We have set sectoral targets for each of these and I feel that engineering goods exports would touch USD 125 billion, export of chemical industry would touch USD 25 billion and drugs, Pharma and basic chemicals would touch USD 44 billion and electronic exports could reach USD 17 billion."

"Apart from this, the employment intensive sectors have been given a special focus which include gems and jewellery for which we have set a target of USD 70 billion and agri exports for which we have set a target of USD 22 billion."

"In terms of market expansion, while in the Foreign Trade Policy, we had provided additional support for 41 new markets in Africa, Latin America, Oceania and Central Asia. On 13th October 2011, we introduced a Special Focus Market Scheme to reach out to 12 new markets of Latin America, 22 new markets of Africa and 7 new markets of Central Asia," he added.