Govt looking at more ideas to enhance services exports: Kher

Dept of Commerce is working on ways to expand scope of 'Serve for India Scheme' in the new five-year foreign trade policy

Emphasising on the need to become more competitive in services in the global market, government today said it is looking at 'more ideas' in the forthcoming foreign trade policy so as to increase exports.

"What we are trying to do is to make it (SFIS) more effective and also come with some more ideas on services exports," Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher told reporters here.

The Department of Commerce is working on ways to expand the scope of the 'Serve for India Scheme' (SFIS) in the new five-year foreign trade policy.

Under the scheme, duty credit scrips equivalent to 10 per cent of foreign exchange earned are given to exporters. It aims to facilitate exporters of various types of services.

"There is a need for us to become more competitive, widen our scope and identify areas where new technologies and new processes of delivering services are promoted," he said at Services Conclave 2014, organised by Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Confederation of Indian Industry.

India is considered as a 'mind' for services delivery but its share in the global services exports is still below 3.5 per cent as against European Union's 42 per cent and China's over 4 per cent.

"We need to look at what kind of domestic reforms are required to make us competitive in the international market... huge amount of domestic reforms are required... Reforms which are required range from very small rule amendments to significant changes," he said.

He added that the Indian industry should focus on Mode II (in the territory of one member to the service consumer of any other member) and Mode III services (like legal and accountancy).

Kher further said that in WTO, few members are negotiating an agreement on trade in services.

"In 2005, we gave our revised offer to WTO. Unfortunately, the WTO is also in some kind of limbo. In the meanwhile, a plurilateral trade in services agreement is being negotiated. We have not been able to participate in that process.

"That is a good enough challenge for us to prepare ourselves to be able to participate in a much broader exercise in the WTO itself and create an environment for other developing countries to come and participate in a much more (broader way)," he said.

Speaking at the same event, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said huge untapped potential exists in several services sectors in India such as healthcare, tourism, entertainment and hospitality.

The government is committed to provide every kind of support for the growth of the sector, she said.

The sector contributes about 57 per cent to the country's GDP. In 2013-14, the services exports stood at $151 billion.