Global trade challenges need to be turned into opportunities: Prez Murmu

President Droupadi Murmu on Monday said India should leverage its exceptional capabilities to turn the challenges of global trade into new opportunities.

Addressing the platinum jubilee of the Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC), she pointed out that India's engineering export destinations have changed significantly over the last seven decades.

EEPC should continue this process of change and keep working to make India's economy stronger with the spirit of 'Nation First', said the President.

She said "the challenges of global trade need to be turned into opportunities by utilising the exceptional capabilities available in our country".

She observed that high-quality engineering services and products at low cost are a great strength of India. The President observed that in the last 10 years, India's engineering exports have increased from USD 70 billion to more than USD 115 billion.

Murmu said this growth in exports seems even more impressive when "we consider that there have been many challenges in the field of international trade during the last decade."  The President said EEPC acted as a bridge between the international market and Indian producers. She urged EEPC to continuously expand India's role in the global value chain.

Murmu said that due to the changes taking place in the world trade order and international economic order, EEPC's role has become more important.

Being an important stakeholder in the economic sector, EEPC should act with greater determination, she stressed.

"Global Capability Centres of the world's biggest companies are in India. Stakeholders like EEPC should move forward with the idea of making India a Global Innovation Centre by providing proper incentives and an ecosystem," Murmu said, adding innovation economies are the most competitive and prosperous in the world.

She urged all stakeholders of EEPC to pledge to make India a leading innovation economy by providing an enabling ecosystem to the talent and energy available in the country.