Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Saturday, Jun 18, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, Jun 18, 2005 |
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Industry & Economy
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Economy Board of Trade sets up 5 groups Our Bureau
New Delhi , June 17 THE reconstituted Board of Trade today set up five working groups on evaluation of export promotion schemes, trade facilitation, export-oriented units (EOUs) and special economic zones (SEZs), infrastructure bottlenecks, identification of specific sectors and manufacturing sector to address the problems in each one these areas head-on. The board, which met here under the Chairmanship of industrialist Mr Kumar Mangalam Birla, also had an inter-face with the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, at his residence to explain the problems plaguing exporters. Later talking to newspersons, the Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, said, "The Prime Minister has asked different ministries to work on the ideas suggested by the Board of Trade to address constraints faced by trade and industry." Mr Birla also echoed the same view by stating that the Prime Minister has directed the various ministries to work towards removing roadblocks to exports, including infrastructure bottlenecks and the need for a flexible labour policy. Mr Birla has stipulated a timeframe of two months, i.e., by end-August, to present these reports to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The next meeting of the board, scheduled in September, would discuss the recommendations of the working groups. On regional trading agreements and free trade agreements , it was decided that the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry would present a paper on the issues. In his remarks at the meeting, Mr Birla said that the board would look at exports as a national priority by addressing issues such as evolving the successor scheme to the Duty Entitlement Passbook Scheme, a duty neutralisation scheme for input taxes, reducing cost disabilities through elimination of transaction cost and the issue of non-tariff barriers. He also underlined the importance of global retail sourcing, stating that as much as $15 billion worth of goods was sourced by Wal-Mart from China last year and said the board could consider what effective role India could play in attracting some of this. Earlier,Mr Kamal Nath urged the board to foster strategies to score a quantum leap in India's exports to a level of $500 billion by way of trade, including import and export of merchandise and services in the next four years. This would help fuel domestic economic activity, besides generating adequate job opportunities in labour-intensive sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing. In a presentation on an overview of the export performance, the Director General of Foreign Trade, Mr K.T. Chacko, said the country's merchandise exports almost touched $80 billion last year with its share in world exports rising from 0.66 per cent in 2000 to 0.82 per cent in 2004. The performance of April-May 2005 showed a growth of 19 per cent over the already high base of last year. Flagging some key concerns for the board, Mr Kamal Nath emphasised the importance of infrastructure and reduction of transaction costs. He suggested that the board could set apart a special meeting entirely to discussing transaction costs, the elimination of which would greatly enhance India's competitiveness. The Minister did some plain speaking by stating, "I do not want you to be a staid and solid institution that meets once a year and exchanges platitudes and pleasantries. I want the Board of Trade to chart for itself a new and signal path in guiding and energising trade in India".
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