The Hindu : Business : Export of select raw materials may be banned

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Saturday, Jul 15, 2006

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Export of select raw materials may be banned

Special Correspondent

Step to benefit employment-oriented sectors

AHMEDABAD: The Centre is expected to announce soon a decision to ban export of raw materials in four key employment-generating sectors and promote exports of only value added products through producers' co-operatives, Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh said here on Friday.

Talking to media persons at the end of his two-day visit to Gujarat during which he studied the working of the women's co-operative organisation, SEWA, and the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), Mr. Ramesh said the Government had identified agriculture and horticulture, handloom, handicrafts and leather industries as the key sectors for imposition of a ban on export of raw materials.

Pointing out that it was a major mistake to export in large scale products like Isabgol and iron ore, the union minister said value addition to these raw materials could fetch much better price in the export market directly benefiting the producers, and generate employment in the rural and semi-urban areas.

He agreed that these sectors did not contribute much in earning dollars for the country which at present varied from about 1.5 per cent by the handloom sector to nine per cent by the agriculture sector of about $100 billion exports, but said "only earning dollars cannot be the criterion.'' Not only these sectors would generate employment, the exports through co-operatives and associations of producers themselves would directly benefit the people living in the countryside, he added.

About replicating the SEWA module, Mr. Ramesh said SEWA had agreed to provide expert advise for creating similar modules in three centres in Andhra Pradesh, Navsapuram in East Godhavari district, and Pochampalli and Koyalgudam, both near Hyderabad, where women's self-help organisations were engaged in silk and other handloom units.

He also announced the formation of the National Fisheries Development Board on the lines of the NDDB for the promotion of exports of marine products. He said that at present marine products contributed about $1.5 billion in exports and the Government had set the target to increase it to about $4 billion in the next four years.

Earlier, inaugurating the packaging film plant of the Indian Dairy Machinery Company Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NDDB, in Anand, Mr. Ramesh cautioned about the coming challenges before the co-operative sector, particularly to fight against malnutrition in the country.

He said though India was being hailed the world over as an emerging economic power, nearly 40 per cent of the babies born were underweight and the malnutrition in certain pockets of the country was even worse than some of the Sub-Saharan African nations.

Recalling the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh's announcement after his recent visit to Vidarbha on a NABARD-NDDB tie-up to provide additional income to poor farmers, Mr Ramesh said the marriage of the agricultural sector with the livestock economy could bring about yet another white revolution and help improve the lot of the poor farmers who commit suicide when the crops fail for natural reasons.

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