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India Aims At $500 Bn Export By 2013-14

BW Online Bureau Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[The Government on Tuesday set a target of more than doubling India's exports to $500 billion in the next three years, buoyed by an 37.5 per cent surge in overseas shipments in the last fiscal. "We must aim for more than a doubling of exports in three years to $500 billion. This is achievable, with a determined effort. More importantly, we cannot afford any less than this," according to a strategy paper released by Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma in New Delhi. For achieving the $500 billion mark, the country's exports should grow annually by 26.7 per cent. Sharma said the strategy hinges on aggressive marketing of 'Brand India' and reducing transaction cost to make exports more competitive. The export drive would be led by sectors like engineering, gems and jewellery, chemicals and textiles. As against the target $200 billion, the merchandise shipments aggregated $246 billion in 2010-11 despite problems in some European markets. The surge in exports came mainly from the US, some western European markets and new destinations like Latin America and Africa. The strategy paper (2011-12 to 2013-14) further said that increased imports are unavoidable for feeding an economy which aspires to grow by 9-10 per cent. "We have, therefore, no option but to focus on higher export growth, and devise a strategy for rapidly increasing merchandise exports to ensure that the Balance of Trade (BoT) and Current Account Deficit (CAD) remain within manageable limits," it said. 'The Strategy for Doubling Exports in Next Three Years' was released after extensive discussions on its draft paper released in March. The draft paper was aimed at increasing the exports to at least USD 450 billion, but following an impressive performance in the last fiscal, the target was raised to USD 500 billion. The ministry has evaluated all the comments it received from different stakeholders, including industry and government departments and has come out with the final strategy paper. Sharma said the strategy would help us in achieving the USD 500 billion target. The document mainly focuses on - product strategy, market strategy, technology and research and development and building brand India. The minister said that at product level, the potential sectors which would help in doubling exports include engineering goods, chemicals and electronics. The government expects engineering goods exports to touch $125 billion from the current $60 billion and shipments of pharmaceuticals products to reach $25 billion from $10 billion in 2013-14. Sharma said the target is to increase chemical exports to $12 billion and electronic goods to $17 billion by 2013-14. "In addition, we are also looking at labour intensive sectors like gems and jewellery, leather and textiles," Sharma said, adding, for leather sector, the government has set a target of $9 billion and for textiles $42 billion in the next three years. For gems and jewellery exports, the paper aims to take it to $70 billion from the current $33.54 billion. Under marketing strategy, the document said there is need to focus on new markets like Asia, South America, pacific and far east. "We are going to incentivise exports to these regions. We will take it forward having preferential trade agreements, free trade pacts in these regions to ensure that our industry and exporters have a better access in these markets," Sharma said. Under the new strategy, the commerce ministry would also promote high technology exports which would cover biotechnology, electronic hardware, automobiles, computer based smart engineering, environmental goods and high-end areas of aerospace engineering. To promote brand India and build global image, Sharma said sectoral strategies have been carved out for this. "Our essential trust in promoting the brand will be to ensure a stable policy environment. Continuation of the existing incentive schemes, preferential access to new markets, reduction of the transaction cost," he said. He said the sectoral action plan and policy interventions to be undertaken both by the department of commerce and concerned ministries would help in achieving the $500 billion target. As the export strategy involves different ministries, Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar will initiate a "coordinated dialogue" for the effective implementation of the action plan. (PTI)