Thursday, Apr 03, 2003
Thursday, Apr 03, 2003 |
| National | ||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | National
By Sushma Ramachandran
"We have to see the big picture now," he said, dismissing the "nuts and bolts" details and procedures for specific sectors in the just-released annual exim policy. With controls on trade largely having been removed, he felt the focus should now be on enabling exporters to become competitive. Instead of worrying about import surges from countries such as China, he argues the country should seek to reverse the flow and push an "export surge". "We should not do defensive batting," he said. In an informal chat, he told The Hindu that this had begun with China as exports had gone up by a phenomenal 86 per cent to that country while imports are growing more slowly at 38 per cent. Pointing to the overall robust export growth during the last fiscal, he said it was a tribute to the country's exporters. Despite global recession, rupee appreciation and war clouds over the Gulf region, a 16.7 per cent growth in exports had been achieved. Given this resilience, by providing the right environment, it would be possible to hit the target of $80 billion by 2007. Towards this direction, Mr. Jaitley is moving beyond the Commerce Ministry and its Directorate-General of Foreign Trade. A series of discussions are being held with both the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on ways to ensure that exporters' problems are resolved. He pointed to the first concrete evidence of this coordination in the fact that customs notifications giving effect to the exim policy were issued on the same day for the first time rather than weeks or months later. In addition, while seeking incentives for the services sectors, the Finance Ministry has been approached for incentives to contributions to venture capital funds, an area normally not within the purview of the exim policy. Mr. Jaitley conceded that considerable cooperation had been forthcoming from the Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, on the move towards a comprehensive approach to the export effort. Even the RBI is trying to speed up clearances for offshore banking units (OBUs) proposed for the special economic zones (SEZs). Elaborating on the key element of this year's exim policy — the thrust on services exports — he said the need was for engines of growth. And the services sector, which accounts for 50 per cent of the country's GDP, was poised to become the focal centre of economic growth over the next decade. It was also an area where the Government was taking the initiative at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for liberalisation and opening up by developed countries especially in the "movement of natural persons".
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | Home |
Copyright © 2003, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
