The Hindu : Business : Export growth target raised to 16 p.c. for 2004-05

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 03, 2004

Business

Business

Export growth target raised to 16 p.c. for 2004-05

By Sushma Ramachandran

NEW DELHI, JULY 2. Exports are expected to reach $73.4 billion this year with the Government having raised the growth target to 16 per cent from 12 per cent in the last two years. This is also likely to help exports reach $150 billion by 2009-10.

According to the Commerce Ministry, with the emerging international trading scenario, the renewed efforts to promote exports and expanding opportunities for Indian exports, the export target for 2004-05 `appears to be well within reach.' An official statement says Indian exports had crossed the $50 billion mark in 2001-02 and the $60 billion mark in 2002-03. "Now with the 16 per cent target, exports should cross the $70 billion target in 2003-04,'' it says.

The target was fixed after a meeting held by the Commerce Secretary, Dipak Chatterjee, with representatives of various export promotion councils, commodity boards and other export promotion bodies for fixing the annual export targets and action plan for 2004-05.

SEZ scheme to cover all services

Earlier, the Commerce and Industry Minister, Kamal Nath, indicated that the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) Act would cover all notified services in addition to manufacturing. He was speaking at a meeting with exporters including the Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO) to discuss international trade in healthcare and education services. He also met the Confederation of Export Units (CEU) on export prospects for EOUs (export oriented units) and the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India.

At present, the SEZ scheme covers largely manufacturing activities and limited services such as trading and IT services including R&D.

Suggesting a major export thrust for services such as healthcare and education during the meeting, the FIEO said the size of the healthcare industry was $17 trillion globally with opportunities cutting across all the four modes of trade under categories laid down by the World Trade Organisation. These include diagnosis and clinical consultations and tele-medicine which come under Mode one, health tourism and education and training under Mode two, establishment of hospitals under Mode three and movement of doctors and health management personnel under Mode four.

They urged the Government to give healthcare sector the status of an industry for short-term financing and income-tax purposes and also set up special SEZs for healthcare including hospitals and attached hotels.

They also felt that trade barriers should be removed such as restrictions on entry and terms of practice as well as restrictions on foreign investment in this sector. The FIEO said it was organising a delegation of leading hospital and healthcare specialists to Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore in August.

On education services, they proposed fostering establishment of education export zones, collaborative activities with foreign educational institutions and international mobility of faculty and students.

There are 1.8 million international students in higher educational institutions around the world, which is likely to reach 7.2 million by 2025. While the U.S. attracts the bulk of the foreign students, followed by the U.K., Germany, France and Australia, India's share of foreign students has actually declined from 13,760 in 1993-94 to 7,791 in 2000-01.

The Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Association of India sought infrastructure status for the hotel industry, permitting `visa on arrival' for select source markets for tourism promotion, import of agricultural and dairy products under the zero duty scheme and continuation of the zero duty scheme for hotels meant for essential equipment and raw materials.

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