'ITPO needs to reorient services for better trade promotion'

A Parliamentary panel today said that government-owned exhibitor ITPO needs to reorient its services so as to avoid duplication in activities which are also undertaken by various export promotion councils.
"The ITPO needs to reorient its services for trade promotion with better in-house research and incisive trade analysis," Standing Committee on Commerce said in a report tabled in Parliament today.
The efforts towards trade promotion, it said, are too general in nature and most of services offered at best seem to be duplicating the work of Export Promotion Councils and Chambers of Commerce.
The report further said India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) needs to revamp and upgrade its portal.

Presently, the portal depends on public contribution for updation of its database and there appears to be no control and monitoring to check the veracity of the volunteer information.
The Committee said that the ITPO could manage the visit of only 35 overseas trade delegations during 2012-13 which is again not a very healthy figure given the size of the economy and export targets.
Though there is an increase in the number of overseas trade delegations in 2012-13, the report said, the number of such delegations that visited India could have been higher with more coordinated efforts of ITPO.
In view of the such "weaknesses", the panel recommended that the ITPO take necessary action to streamline its various services and activities to discharge the mandate of trade promotion effectively.