The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) on Monday said if exports maintain an annual growth trend of 25 per cent, it can cross $500 billion by 2014-15 from $220 billion expected in 2010-11.
“Emerging markets in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Middle-East countries would play an important role to achieve this ambitious target. Out of the $500 billion exports, major chunk will be contributed by Asia with a share of $230 billion with ASEAN alone importing more than $100 billion from India. Exports to Africa and Latin America will zoom,” FIEO President Ramu S. Deora told journalists here.
Pointing out that the Central Asian nations like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries like Russia and Ukraine would also contribute in increasing Indian exports, Mr. Deora said India's exports to traditional destinations like the U.S. and Europe would go down to 15 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.
“The share of Europe and North America will be down to 15 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively as growth in advanced economies will taper off,” he said. At present, the U.S. and EU account for about 35 per cent of India's exports.
Mr. Deora urged the Centre to act immediately on the bottlenecks like infrastructure and reducing transaction cost to achieve the milestone. “Quantum jump in investment would be required in roads, ports, airports, containers, power and telecommunications, cold storage and refrigerated vans and warehouses, so as to augment the installed capacity,” he said.
The FIEO President also said that fluctuation in exchange rate hurts exporters and importers, so the government should consider full convertibility of Indian rupee to curb high volatility. Notably, India's exports grew by 29.5 per cent to $164.7 billion during April-December 2010-11. In December 2010, shipments grew by 36.4 per cent year-on-year. In 2010-11, the outbound shipments are expected to touch $220 billion.
