Vizag SEZ exports clock 28% growth

Visakhapatnam Special Economic Zone (VSEZ) has registered a 28 per cent growth in exports for the year ending March 31, 2004.

"During 2003-04, the zone's exports was around Rs 437 crore, as compared with Rs 341.37 crore in the previous fiscal. This 28 per cent increase is largely due to the new diamond processing unit which started operations during the year.

We are expecting some more export-oriented units to come up in the zone during the current fiscal. We, therefore, expect the exports to touch the Rs 600-crore mark this fiscal," P Ramesh Kumar, development commissioner, VSEZ, told Business Standard.

At present, there are 19 manufacturing, trading and processing units, apart from the seven software units in the special economic zone. Both the Central and the state government have been offering several concessions to these units to promote exports.

Out of the current year's total exports of Rs 437 crore, 94 per cent of the exports have been generated by the two diamond-processing units, and Rs 10 crore of exports by the software units.

In fact, software exports from the zone have been slipping for the last two years. Software exports from the zone was Rs 29.18 crore in 2001-02 and Rs 15 crore in 2002-03.

"At present, several foreign companies are showing interest for setting up 100 per cent export oriented units in the special economic zone, and some of them may start their units during this fiscal. This is likely to help VSEZ exports to cross Rs 600 crore during 2004-05. We are also expecting a good growth in the software exports," Kumar said.