Ongoing trade wars present an excellent opportunity for India: Hardeep Singh Puri

The ongoing trade wars present an excellent opportunity for India to gain from, said Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Honorable Union Minister of State for Housing & Urban Affairs, Civil Aviation and Commerce and Industry. He further elucidated that this could be done if CII and other apex bodies could be more effective 'eyes & ears' of trade before the government to highlight issues, concerns and expectations. Shri Puri was speaking at Confederation of Indian Industry's National Conference held in New Delhi here today.

Shri Puri highlighted specific products such as Fresh grapes, Tobacco, Steel Boiler Tubes, Fresh dried oranges, Durum wheat etc where there exists tremendous potential for India to take advantage due to the high tariffs imposed by both US and China on each other. Apex bodies need to be active in picking up opportunities in trade along with the government, he commented. China will be importing US$24 trillion of goods and services in the next 5 years. We need to seize the opportunity presented by this effectively, Shri Puri added.

The world has come a long way since the current trading system was evolved. The multilateral trading system anchored in WTO is under strain. However, India must participate in the multilateral discussions to shape the new trade rules because if we choose to stay away, we lose the opportunity to influence, Shri Puri elucidated. India has a lot to gain from the preservation and growth of multilateralism anchored in a system of law and rules & regulations, he added.

We will meet the target of Housing for All by 2020 as opposed to 2022 with 83 lakh houses alone getting sanctioned before the code of conduct kicked in earlier this year, Shri Puri stated. Smart cities project is the fastest implementable project in the world and to develop it further, by the end of December 2019, 50 integrated Command & Control Centres in Smart Cities will be operational, he added.

On the civil aviation sector, the Minister noted that though we have some turbulence in the sky, he was confident that the government will provide an enabling environment where the issues will be resolved. The civil aviation sector has tremendous potential and India would want to become world leaders in the sector. The domestic carriers should be provided a level playing field to flourish, he commented. In the real estate sector, RERA has been a game changer and it carries the potential of turning around the fortunes of the beleaguered sector, if implemented in true letter and spirit, noted the Minister.

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