Industry should come forward with suggestions to improve exports, says Tripathy

Even as the country has been looking at the eastern countries for exports growth for past years, the exports to these countries is yet to grow as the industry has to come up with initiative to increase exports, said Asit Tripathy, joint secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry.

Delivering key note address in a seminar on Leveraging FTAs (Foreign Trade Agreements) for promoting exports and investment, organised by the Ministry and the Confederation of Indian Industry, he said that the Indian companies has to come up with suggestions to improve exports to these countries.

He added that the Departnment of Commerce was able to convince the Department of Finance about the export credit issues faced by the exporters and the export credit can be considered as a priority sector lending. The issue is in advanced stage of discussion and is expected to be finalised soon, he added.

Answering to the queries and suggestions of the industry, he added that the Ministry would look at how to improve the performance of the employees in the commerce division of the Indian Embassies overseas. He added that the Ministry would consider opening a 24/7 communication system for the industry including the micro, small and medium scale firms to convey their grievances and get clarifications.

Speaking to the exporters, M S Srikar, director, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, said that there is a lot of potential in signing FTAs with other countries for trade of services. Currently, there are four FTAs for services, with Korea, Singapore, Japan and Malaysia.

The Ministry is in negotiation with some more countries, like Canada, Australia, Newzealand and Israel for similar agreements. Apart from IT services, the healthcare, tourism and professional services would come under the purview of the agreement, which would enable the Indian firms to export services to these countries, he added.

However, the industry has raised their concerns that the FTAs are many a time favouring the other country rather than the companies in India. R Prabhakar, executive director, Business Development of Amalgamations Group, said that the Ministry should set up a communication channel between the industry and the Ministry for better communication and should ensure that the commercial wings in the Indian embassies are working properly to build Brand India and bring in more business opportunities for the country.