Exports likely to exceed target

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 5. The Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Mr. Omar Abdullah, today said that India's exports during 2000-2001 are likely to exceed the target. Export trends up to October have been encouraging and the growth rate has been consistently higher than the target of 18 per cent fixed for the year.

Speaking at a meeting with the Chairman of the Export Promotion Councils (EPCs) and the Commodity Boards organised by the Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO), here today, Mr. Abdullah observed ``we are reaching a point on the export graph where we can accelerate and take off... However, there is no reason for us to be complacent about our export performance.''

Referring to the great strides that countries in the east and the south-east Asian regions have made in achieving sustained levels of export-led growth, he said, the country has to strive to do as well, if not better, than them.

He emphasised that India would have to intensify its efforts for becoming more competitive in international markets not only in terms of price but also quality. His message to exporters was to think big and create a vision which should involve systematic analysis and brainstorming. Mr. Abdullah urged the EPCs to finalise the medium term export strategy for the next five years (2001-2006) based on advance and detailed planning for promotion of exports.

He said the Government had circulated model articles of association for adoption by EPCs in order to rationalise and streamline their working and make them effective instruments for achieving higher export growth in view of the changed global marketing scenario. He urged them to adopt these articles of association at the earliest. Guidelines had also been issued, he said, for direct participation of the EPCs without involving the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) for product specific trade fairs in an attempt at further liberalisation of procedures. EPCs should complement each other's efforts by regular experience sharing about markets, potential and success stories which would help bring down costs and increase export competitiveness.

The FIEO president, Mr. Navratan Samdria, reiterated that the export growth trend this year had been satisfactory with the first half of the fiscal registering impressive growth and promising to close with a growth figure higher than the target of 18 per cent.

He suggested a four-point strategy to further accelerate exports by focussing on specific issues on infrastructure as well as banking and labour, formulating consumer marketing strategies for exports, looking at all 100 per cent manufacturers-exporters as EOUs and recast of the Exim Policy to make it the basic document for foreign trade.

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Section  : Business
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