Foreign trade office to come up in Vijayawada

A regional office of the Director-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) will soon start functioning from the city for the benefit of exporters from the region.

While the office at Visakhapatnam will cater to the needs of five coastal districts - Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East and West Godavari, the upcoming office will cover the remaining eight districts. “We are in the process of entering into a lease agreement with the property owner in the city for setting up the office. We may inaugurate it in a couple of months,” said Joint Director-General of Foreign Trade S.B.S. Reddy.

“As there is no government land here, we are hiring a private property for setting up the office,” he said, adding that the new premises would be beneficial to exporters in the region on all fronts. A 10-member staff led by a joint Director-General would be posted at the Vijayawada office. According to Mr. Reddy, Guntur comprises 50 per cent of the exports from the region and there are Rs.5,000 crore tobacco exports.

In addition, the region has 44 spinning mills and other food product units. “It’s a new State and once the regional office starts functioning, then it will cater to the specific needs of the exporters,” he added. Presently, many exporters were coming to Hyderabad to meet the officials to get more information about the foreign trade.