The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ‘Let us match First World in growth’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 28, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

‘Let us match First World in growth’

Special Correspondent

‘Import of raw material may become a prime factor for manufacturing’

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

MONEY MATTERS: Abhijit Das (left), Officer-in-charge of UNCTAD in India; M.C.R. Shetty, KASSIA president; Anil Bharadwaj, secretary-general of FISME, at the Workshop on ‘Globalisation: challenges and opportunities for SMEs’ held in Bangalore on Tuesday.

BANGALORE: Experts in trade bodies have called for diffusion of knowledge pertaining to trade practices in order to get into higher growth pattern and match the progress made by the First World countries. These views came up during the inaugural session of the Congress of Industrial Associations from South India on “Globalisation: challenges and opportunities for small and medium enterprises” here on Tuesday.

The congress was jointly organised by Karnataka Small Scale Industries’ Association (KASSIA) and Federation of Indian Micro and Small and Medium Enterprises (FISME).

In-charge of the United Nations Conference on Trade Development (UNCTAD) India Abhijit Das, who delivered the keynote address of the congress, urged the “laggards and vanguards” of the small and medium industries to hone their skills in management, diffusion of knowledge and sharing their experiences with the world should be the order to follow.

Mr. Das, quoting a World Bank study about the status of Indian trade and commerce, said that India could multiply its world trade volumes by not less than 4.8 times by following simple accounting, management and information flow exercises.

The UNCTAD had been making efforts to create a network of trade bodies to bring about diffusion of knowledge. This was being done on a trilateral basis involving the Government, local and apex trade bodies and the UNCTAD at the helm of affairs.

He appealed to the trade bodies to “be aware” of their weaknesses and strengths and try to learn from the experience of the world.

He said the world was looking at a situation where the import of raw materials as a prime factor for promoting manufacturing activities. Every country in the world was trying to conserve its raw material by discouraging exports of raw material.

New avenues

At this point of time, Indian manufacturers should look for avenues where they could get imported raw materials to meet their production needs. Perhaps, a zero import duty for raw materials was in order at this point of time, Mr. Das said.

Earlier, FISME secretary-general Anil Bharadwaj said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will be one of the largest trade bodies in the world when China, Korea and Japan join it, and with large populations of India and China coming together on a single platform like ASEAN, the trade balance of the world would change forever, he said.

It was time for SMEs in India to wake up to this reality and only those who were receptive to changes would grab the opportunity of being a global player. KASSIA president M.C.R. Shetty said the focus of SMEs should be, to be a part of the global strategy, transcending trade barriers and using various tools for equating the position of Indian SMEs with that of the world competitors.

The main commodities such as plastic, steel and aluminium were being cartelised by global players and it was time for India to proactively be in the game of import reformation.

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