Odisha to revisit draft export policy

The state directorate of export promotion & marketing (EPM) wouldrevisit the draft export policy to maximize exports from Odisha.

The draft export policy would be reworked after all departments submittheir views.Thedraft policy is aimed at identifying sectors which are alreadycontributing or have the potential to contribute to exports.

It also seeks to identify the bottlenecks which need to be overcome toenable the sectors to realize their full potential. Infrastructureconstraints have to be overcome to boost exports.The state's investment promotion agency Industrial Promotion &Investment Corporation of Odisha Ltd (Ipicol) will provide technicalinputs to the director, EPM in areas related to export policy,incentives and other important issues.Apreparatory meeting is expected to be held soon to finalize the draftstrategy policy. The thrust of the policy is to boost exports in the MSME (micro, smalland medium enterprises) sector.

Sectors with potential for exports include handicrafts, handloom, textiles,engineering and chemicals, marine products, agro and forest products,pharmaceuticals, electronics and software products, gems andjewellery.

Odisha's overall exports stood at Rs 2382.83 crore on 2001-02 and has beenconsistently growing since then. Apart from metallurgical and mineralproducts that have a lion's share in the export basket, agriculture &forest products, handloom products, handicrafts products, textileproducts, gems & jewellery products and pharmaceutical productsare also exported from the state.

But exports from Odisha in 2011-12 saw a drop of 5.61 per cent at Rs 16139.20 crore in 2011-12 compared to Rs 17098.88 crore in theprevious fiscal. Thesteepest fall was noticed in case of exports of engineering,chemicals and allied products which nosedived 75.23 per cent from Rs 612.62 crore to Rs 151.69 crore.

Exports of metallurgical products too fell marginally in value terms from Rs 4807.98 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 4793.94 crore in 2011-12. The quantityexported, however, surged from 0.26 million tonne to 0.76 milliontonne.