The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Tiruchi News : Engineering goods export touches an all-time high

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 24, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi

Engineering goods export touches an all-time high

By Our Special Correspondent

TIRUCHI, DEC. 23. The export of engineering goods from the country touched an all time high of Rs. 48,890 crores during 2003-04 in contrast to the meagre Rs. 5.16 crores reached during 1956.

This was possible thanks to the initiative taken by the Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) with the active support of other government agencies and efforts put in by the exporters, the Deputy Director of the EEPC, Chennai, A. Shanthi, said while addressing an `Export Awareness Seminar' organised jointly by the EEPC, the District Industries Centre (DIC) and the BHEL Small Scale Industries Association (BHELSSIA) here on Saturday.

Ms. Shanthi said the Government, to boost the country's exports, and its projects and services, set up export promotion councils under the aegis of the Ministry of Commerce in the 1950s. The EEPC has a membership of over 12,000 Indian firms, including 2,000 in the southern region, covering the entire spectrum of the engineering industry. The EEPC was the first export promotion organisation in the country to have received the ISO-9002 certification for designing and organising exclusive engineering exhibitions abroad.

Referring to the performance of the EEPC, Ms. Shanthi said that during the last five decades, it played a pivotal role in transforming the profile of India from an engineering exporter of low value items to developing nations to that of a vibrant exporting nation with more than 30 per cent in the product mix accounted for by capital goods and machinery.

On export promotion activities, she said the council with its network of foreign offices located in several countries assisted its members to identify potential products on a regular basis. The foreign offices also compiled market intelligence based upon which market survey reports were prepared for the benefit of Indian exporters.

Ms. Shanthi said the EEPC, whose regional office is at Chennai and sub-regional office at Bangalore, has planned to open another sub-regional office at Hyderabad next month. On future proposals, she said the council planned among other things, a buyer-seller meet in Vietnam, an Indian engineering exhibition in Indonesia, participation in the Houseware show at Chicago, and taking of delegations to China early next year.

The Branch Manager of the Exports Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC), Madurai, P.S. Murali, called upon exporters to opt for the ECGC shield to cover losses.

The president of the BHELSSIA, Rajappa Rajkumar, said his association has planned to take delegations to Malaysia to study the latest manufacturing technologies and export potential to UK and Italy for studying the feasibility of a technology tie-up.

The Associate Editor, Dinamalar, R. Ramasubbu, inaugurated the seminar. The General Manager (in-charge) of the DIC, Kandasamy, spoke.

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