Commerce Min in consultations with states to promote exports

A team of officers, led by the commerce secretary, is holding detailed consultations with states to clear the bottlenecks that are hampering exports, an official has said. "So far, we have done this exercise with 14 states. It is an ongoing exercise to involve states in promoting the country's exports," the commerce ministry official said.

The team includes officers from the ministry, directorate general of foreign trade, Container Corporation of India and director general of Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO). "We discuss all the issues which are hampering exports. The team also gives an export profile to states as to in which country they can look for exports and which products hold potential for them," the official added.

The team discusses those issues with chief secretaries of states as well as senior officials. FIEO Director General Ajay Sahai said they hold consultations with exporters about the problems which they face while exporting goods and services.

"Those issues are then taken up with the concerned state chief secretary. The exercise helps in integrating states in promoting India's exports," Sahai said. Seeking to involve states for promoting exports, the Commerce Ministry had also asked states to appoint export commissioners and prepare export strategy. The commissioners help in ensuring that bottlenecks are cleared and development of infrastructure takes place. India's export grew by 4.39 per cent to $ 23.56 billion in June as shipments of chemicals, engineering and marine products improved.

To increase shipments, the commerce ministry is taking various steps. The government aims to facilitate increase in exports of goods and services from USD 465.9 billion to USD 900 billion by 2019-20 and to raise India's share in world exports from 2 per cent to 3.5 per cent.