Exports will end up near targeted level: Sharma

India's exports in value terms are expected to be very close to the targetted $300 billion this fiscal notwithstanding global challenges, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma today said.

"We hope that we will be somewhere there. We had set a target of $300 billion," Sharma told reporters here. He said that the strategy of diversifying export markets in the face of the prolonged economic slowdown in developed world has paid off well.

"You have to bear in mind that what is being achieved is being done in a very challenging backdrop," he said, adding we should wait for the exact figures as two more months are remaining in the fiscal.

Sharma said the two-way trade in calendar year 2011 stood at $770 billion.

Concerns have been raised about the export numbers in the wake of the global slowdown with the current account deficit coming under more stress.

In a response to when will the decision to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in the crisis-affected aviation sector will be notified, Sharma said we have to wait for the group of minister's decision.

"There is a Group of Ministers [GoM] that is seized of this matter... The GoM has met. The finance minister chairs the GoM and I am sure that the GoM will meet again to have a review of the developments to see what best steps can be taken," he said.