The Union Cabinet is likely to approve 10 new market development missions to aid exports, Union Minister for Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu said on Thursday.
“Very soon the cabinet should approve at least 10 new missions, first time in India’s history, for growing exports. We are creating Market Development Mission of Indian products globally. We will identify the market, our people will be there so that they can work with marketing agencies all over to boost exports,” Mr. Prabhu said while speaking at the CAP India 2018 Chemicals and Plastics exhibition in Mumbai.
“The Indian government is fully committed to promote exports in a big way. We are doing this through a multi-pronged strategy. I am in the process of preparing a strategy where by over a period of time at least a trillion dollars of exports from India will be possible. That includes not just merchandise but also services exports which will rise even much faster,” the minister said.
He said the government was working on a strategy for market penetration, market research, new products and new markets to boost exports. Trade events are being organised in African, Central and Latin American countries to find new markets and to introduce new products.
Answering a question on government’s exports target the Minister said, “In the last few months we have seen exports are continuously registering growth.”
Imports outpacing
Commenting on India’s export performance D.K. Joshi, chief economist CRISIL, said, “Exports are growing this year because the base has been low for the past three to four years. Exports from labour intensive sectors are under pressure. So though exports are growing, still it is underperformance considering that the world economy is growing. Our imports are growing more than the exports and this is a matter of concern.”
The minister said the government was ensuring that not only exports of traditional products but new products were added to the basket. “We are also focusing on services,” Mr. Prabhu said.
The Centre has identified 12 services as ‘champion services’ and the Cabinet has approved ₹5,000 crore for promoting them. Action plan for each of these sectors has been prepared which will promote the services domestically and globally. These include medical tourism and aviation.
Work is also on to identify clusters which are traditionally known for exports of certain products. The new industrial policy will have exports as a thrust area for manufacturing, the minister said. “We are thinking of developing clusters around coastal areas so that exports can happen faster. We are also identifying agricultural exports as a major thrust area. We are planning to create air hubs to evacuate agri products faster. We are taking to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, who are keen to import such products,” he said.
