Higher Exports Must, Says Vajpayee

Export expansion is a fundamental requirement of the country's development objectives, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said.

Other than fetching hard currency, it helps assimilate changes in technology, management systems and international best practices in terms of product quality, packaging and marketing, he said.

Speaking on the occasion of the National Export Awards Function for 1998-99, he said the country needed to reorient its thinking and approach to international trade to lay greater stress on export promotion.

Despite the challenges posed by the changed terms of tariff and trade, globalisation offered numerous opportunities that were advantageous to the developing nations, he said. However, to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities of globalisation, "We have to keep pace with the basic impulse of globalisation", he said.

 

He also emphasised that if globalisation was about inter-dependence through trade, then it was imperative that developed nations provide genuine market access to developing nations.

The one sector that best exemplified using globalisation to national advantage was information technology, he stated. The information technology sector also demonstrated that purposeful synergy between government policies and private initiative could achieve real progress, he said.

"We need to replicate this approach for other sectors of our economy, especially knowledge-based sectors like pharamceuticals, electronic and bio-technology," he added.

With `Cold War geo-politics' being replaced by `geo-economics', the country needs to undertake a paradigm shift in its approach to international trade, said, Murasoli Maran, commerce and industry minister.

"There is a need to bring about a special focus on exports and make them an engine for creation of more employment and higher economic growth," he said. The country should strive for an export growth of 20 per cent or more in the coming years by diversifying the export basket towards higher value-added products with higher technology content, he added.

Stressing that trade policy has to be proactive rather than reactive, he said market access was strategic in today's world economy much more than at any time in the past.

"We need to take steps to make Indian products fill up the shelves in the stores around the world in large numbers, greater volumes and as more conspicuous recognisable Indian brands," he said.

He emphasised the need to put in place a massive market access programme on the lines of the American market access programme, together with a strategy to enhance the export capabilities and competitiveness of the country.

He emphasised that only a national endeavour would help India enhance its share in the world trade commensurate with its potentials and enable the country to optimise the gains from a rule-based trading system.

Maran also announced the finalisation of the National Programme for Organic Production, which he said incorporated the standards for organic farming and production evolved by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements.

Despite the challenges posted by the changed terms of tariff and trade, globalisation offered numerous opportunites that were advantageous to the developing nations, Vajpayee said.