Fall in exports arrested: Nirmala Sitharaman

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said the fall in exports has been arrested and 12 sectors have logged export growth in value terms.

Speaking at the Regional Editors Conference here, Sitharaman said last fiscal exports were $262.30 billion - down by 15.5 per cent over the previous year.

However, 12 sectors like tea, tobacco, spices, fruits and vegetables, cereal preparations, ceramic products, drugs, glassware, textiles and others registered growth in value terms.

She said the government was looking into diversification of export product basket, diversification into non-traditional markets and conclusion of ongoing free trade agreements (FTA) negotiations and initiating new FTAs for promotion of exports.

On the manufacturing sector she said it grew at 9.3 per cent in 2015-16, much higher than the five-six per cent growth in previous three financial years and was the major contributor to the healthy 7.6 per cent growth of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015-16.

As to ease of doing business, Sitharaman said 340 point Action Plan has been shared with all states for implementation, workshops were conducted in states on request and online dashboard for reporting and evaluation is an ongoing process.

--IANS

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