Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal interacted with representatives from various industry associations on Wednesday to discuss growth opportunities amidst the pandemic and asked them to pre-pay MSMEs to safeguard their viability and boost employment.

“Took detailed feedback and suggestions of industry leaders on ways to combat ongoing challenges, support affected sectors & improve ease of doing business,” the Minister tweeted after the meeting.

The Minister said that the industry should make use of the `Single Window’ for business processes and approvals to the maximum extent possible and also give suggestions and inputs for further decriminalisation of rules and reduction of compliance burdens wherever feasible, according to an official release issued by the government.

Resilient India Inc

Goyal appreciated the resilience displayed by the Indian industry while grappling with the pandemic, especially in the field of exports. He said that the growth in services exports, despite travel and tourism restrictions, were commendable the country must aim to reach $ 250 billion services exports annually.

Indian professionals had demonstrated great success in working from home and therefore the nation had succeeded in meeting every single one of its international commitments, even during the pandemic, he added.

He also asked the industry to give guidance for transformational growth in goods exports beyond $ 400 billion, the statement added.

On the progress made in the on-going FTA negotiations, Goyal said that the government was focusing on concluding several Early Harvest Agreements so that their benefits could reach industry soon. He said that an FTA with UAE was nearing conclusion, while negotiations were at an advanced stage with Australia and discussions with Israel were ongoing.

There is an imminent need for up-gradation of testing facilities and labs to improve to quality, the Minister said, and called upon Indian Industry to extend its support to achieve this.

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