Medium Term Export Strategy To Be Announced In 2 Mths

The government is expected to announce the medium term export strategy for the period 2001-06 in about two month's time and the issue of increasing the number of designated ports for import of 300 sensitive items is under consideration.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an open house organised by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (Fieo), director general of foreign trade (DGFT), N L Lakhanpal said the government had received a number of representations on inclusion of more ports as entry points for imports.

"We are looking into this and are open to including more to the list," he said.

 

On the preparation of the medium-term export strategy, the DGFT said that the preliminary report had already been prepared by the various councils and export organisations and added that the government was attempting a very detalied analysis of the international markets before unveiling the policy.

"We want to identify the top import items of important markets like the us. We will then identify those items among that list in which India has a comparative advantage. This list will then be provided to all the exporters to serve as a reference book," he said.

On the removal of export restrictions on certain agricultural items including wheat and pulses, Lakhanpal said that the group of ministers was actively considering this aspect and a decision on this was expectedly shortly.

He also said that both the DGFT and the customs department would from next week begin testing their online facilities through the electronic data interchange and added that full fledged on-line operations would commence from June this year.

"All the 1,25,000 pan code holders can then furnish their shipping bills and other data online. We hope this will go a long way in bringing down transaction costs," he said.