India's goods export is likely to touch $350 billion in the current fiscal despite increasing global protectionism, Commerce & Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu has said.
This would translate into a 16 per cent growth over last fiscal exports worth $302 billion, the healthiest the country has seen over the past few years. Prabhu was speaking at the 2nd Services Excellence Awards and Summit – 2018 organised by Assocham on Wednesday.
The Minister said that the services sector was set to become a dominant driver of the Indian economy and would contribute $ 3 trillion of the envisaged $ 5 trillion GDP by 2025.
"The Commerce Ministry has identified 12 champion services sectors for which the Cabinet has approved a dedicated fund of Rs 500 crore to support initiatives for sectoral action," he said.
The Minister pointed out that the services sector contributed significantly to India’s increased productivity and competitiveness and high quality of the champion services sectors will further boost the export of various services from India and give a boost to employment generation.
India is pushing for export of services to countries in Africa and Latin America. It has a two pronged agenda with its trading partners -- allowing professionals from India to travel abroad and trade facilitation in services export.