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`Branding will add sheen to jewellery exporters'

Special Correspondent

Competition from other Asian countries

— Photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury

BEYOND FAMILY: Kamal Nath (left), Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, with Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal, at an award function in Kolkata on Saturday.

KOLKATA: Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath on Saturday asked gems and jewellery exporters to move out of the family domain and professionalise and adopt branding to strengthen their talent-base and global competitiveness.

Speaking at the 33rd annual awards function of the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), he said that while the family would remain the `bedrock' of the industry, it would have to work out a strategy of branding and adopt working conditions that were up to the mark and attract the best talents.

Maintaining the same tenor during his two meetings here (the other being an address to the Bharat Chamber of Commerce), the Minister said competition from countries like Vietnam and other southern and east Asian countries was emerging as a new challenge before the country which needed to be addressed. "Branding will give the exporters as well as the country an edge,'' he remarked.

Talking to reporters later, he said the calculation of revenue losses on account of SEZs was only notional. "The volume of employment generation and the spur of economic activity will be huge,'' he said.

However, he said SEZs should ideally be located in single or low crop areas where agricultural production loss would be minimal. Displaced farmers should be gainfully employed in industries that come up on SEZs, he said. He was, however, unwilling to comment on the Singur issue in West Bengal.

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said at the GJEPC function that Manikanchan (where the function was held) was the country's first greenfield SEZ, which was set up in recognition of the gems and jewellery sector's potential.

Council chairman Sanjay Kothari said that between April and October 2006 exports stood at Rs. 44,000 crore.

He stressed the need to explore new markets and revive old ones like Japan.

He wanted the setting up of a national council which would embrace both domestic and overseas players in this sector.

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