Thursday, Jan 02, 2003
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The Commerce and Industry Minister, Arun Shourie, said the growth in exports was commendable, but warned that the industry still had a long way to go in improving its competitiveness, particularly in comparison with countries such as China. As per provisional trade data released today, exports during April-November 2002 registered an impressive 15.65 per cent growth even as imports posted a 14.25 per cent increase during the same period. The increase in imports during the period under reference could be attributed to the 21.09 per cent increase in oil imports that were valued at $11.72 billion against $9.68 billion in the corresponding period a year earlier. Accordingly, the trade deficit for November as also for April-November was higher at $1.22 billion and $6.24 billion respectively. Commenting on the export performance, Mr. Shourie told PTI here that, "there is still a long way to go in improving our competitiveness, we are not focussing enough on that.'' Referring to the growth in low technology areas achieved by China, he said Indian industries needed to realise the importance of a "marriage between technology and traditional industries.'' While India had demonstrated its strength in new areas such as IT and media, in the traditional industries there was not much effort in upgrading technology or in improving designs, Mr. Shourie said. He commended the efforts of institutes like IIT, Kanpur, which were working on innovative methods to improve designs in traditional sectors such as glassware or the chikan work (thread work). Emphasising the need to implement decisions already taken, Mr. Shourie cited the instances of the Commerce Ministry where some of the Exim policy announcements made in March 2002, had still not been notified. As per the provisional data, exports in November were valued at $4.13 billion compared to $3.57 billion in the corresponding period a year earlier. At the same time, imports were valued at $5.36 billion compared to $4.15 billion. Cumulative exports during April-November were valued at $32.86 billion compared to $28.42 billion and imports at $39.11 billion against $34.23 billion in the corresponding period a year earlier. India has set a 12 per cent export growth target for the current fiscal. Exports had suffered a setback last fiscal as a fall-out of September 11 and had registered a negative growth of around 2 per cent. Oil imports during April-November 2002-03 were valued at $11.73 billion, 21.09 per cent higher than the oil imports valued at $9.68 billion in the corresponding period last year. Non-oil imports were up 11.56 per cent at $27.38 billion against $24.55 billion. PTI
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