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The Commerce Ministry has identified nine sectors for export promotion, which include gems and jewellery, leather, textile and apparel, engineering, electronics, chemicals and petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, agriculture and allied and marine products.
At the recent inter-ministerial meeting on export promotion, Commerce & Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu proposed that possible barter arrangements with specific countries may be explored, according to an official release.
Commerce Ministry officials had earlier said the Ministry was exploring barter mechanisms with countries such as Iran, Russia and Venezuela.
"Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan apprised that discussions are also on to provide priority sector status to export credit, to enhance the volume of credit and for enhancement of allocation for the interest subvention scheme and for the SEIS and MEIS schemes," the official release said.
The Commerce Minister appreciated the inter-ministerial teamwork leading to formulation of the current sectoral export strategy. "He urged the ministries to work on tapping opportunities with countries in this region, particularly in South Asia, as there is huge potential to increase India’s exports," the release added.
This was the third inter-ministerial meeting on sectoral export promotion strategy. The meeting was attended by Commerce Secretary, DG Foreign Trade , the Secretaries of Textiles and Chemicals and Petrochemicals and other senior officers from the Ministries and Departments of Electronics, MSME, Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Defence Production.
The Minister emphasised the need to create more jobs in India with a focus on labour-intensive manufacturing Special Economic Zones. He also suggested that the possibility of collaborative exports in partnership with other countries be explored.
Drawing attention to India's multilateral obligations, Prabhu asked the line ministries to adhere to India’s World Trade Organisation commitments, while designing their export promotion policies.
He suggested a separate meeting on the services sector to examine issues relating to remittances and other capital flows.
The Minister said China and the US were emerging opportunities and industries, which are relocating from China on account of rising labour cost, and may be invited to invest in India after immediately revising regulatory procedures.
The DGFT pointed out that merchandise exports were up by 16.13 per cent to $136.10 billion in April-August 2018-19.
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