Services Sector Showed Immense Resilience During The Pandemic: Piyush Goyal

Speaking at the inaugural Global Services Conclave of the Services Export Promotion Council (SPEC) on Tuesday, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles Piyush Goyal said that India’s services sector showed immense resilience during the Pandemic.

“While services trade remained depressed in other countries, India’s services sector showed immense resilience. Sectors like tourism, hospitality, etc. which suffered due to COVID-19, are showing signs of revival,” he said.

The Minister highlighted that the services exports indeed dipped by three per cent to USD 206 billion in 2020-21 but that was without the hospitality and aviation sector. “These figures indicate that in reality the services exports have grown,” he added.

He said services are a key driver of India’s economic growth as it provides employment to nearly 2.6 crore people and contributes approximately 40% to India’s total global exports. He added that Services trade surplus was USD 89 billion in FY 2020-21 and it has been the largest FDI recipient.

Observing that India has transformed from being the ‘Back office’ to the ‘Brain office’ of the world, Goyal said that today, India’s Services export largely comprise of IT/ITes and stressed that we need to focus on other potential growth sectors.

He further highlighted government’s efforts in promoting services of exports such as collateral-free automatic loans for businesses and disbursement of Rs. 56,027 under various Export Promotion schemes. He also appreciated the sector for not pursuing incentives but standing on its competitive strength.

Charting the way forward, Goyal said that there is a need to introduce more standards & improve quality. “We must move up the value chain in services and pick areas where our strength lies and expand on that,” he said.

Darpan Jain, Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce; Amit Yadav, Director General, DGFT; Maneck Davar, Chairman, SEPC; Abhay Sinha, Director General, SEPC; Sunil Talati, Vice Chairman, SEPC were among others who were present at the conclave.