Prabhu to chair inter-ministerial meet today on export growth

Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu will chair an inter-ministerial meeting on Monday to discuss the implementation of sector-specific strategies to bring about a substantial and sustained increase in the growth of exports.

Secretaries and other senior officials from ministries and departments such as textiles, electronics and IT, heavy industry, agriculture, animal husbandry, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, mines, defence production, commerce, industry, food processing and food and public distribution will share their action plans to increase exports, a government official told BusinessLine .

“There have already been two inter-ministerial meetings earlier this year on sectoral export promotion strategies where various stakeholders shared the problems and opportunities related to their sectors. At the Monday meeting, it is hoped that concrete policies for export promotion will be agreed upon,” the official added.

An analysis carried out by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade suggested that India’s share of exports is high in goods which are less traded, and low in goods in which trade is more. Moreover, most exports from the country are of items considered low in the global value chain.

“The idea behind sectoral export promotion strategies is to reverse the trend and increase India’s exports of high-value items and products that are high in demand globally. This is possible with all departments and ministries contributing to the strategy,” the official said.

In FY15, India’s exports declined 1.3 per cent to $310.33 billion from $314 billion the previous year. The following year, with continued global slowdown, exports declined at a sharper 15.48 per cent to $262.29 billion.

Although in the last two fiscals exports have posted modest increases, overall merchandise exports worth $303 billion shipped in FY18 (10 per cent growth) were still below the FY14 level of $314 billion.

Growth in FY19

In the first five months of this fiscal, exports have increased about 16 per cent, said the official, adding: “This is encouraging. Through a focussed strategy for sectoral export growth the growth would be higher and more sustained.”

In an earlier meeting, Prabhu said the Commerce Department would also take the assistance of the Ministry of External Affairs to implement the action plans through India’s commercial missions abroad.