Govt identifies 12 towns of exportable excellence

New Delhi, Nov 28 (UNI) The Government has identified twelve Towns of Export Excellence on the basis of exporatable goods worth Rs 1000 crore or more in general and Rs 250 crore or more for Handloom, Handicraft, Agriculture and fisheries, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath told the Lok Sabha today.

Responding to supplementaries during the question hour, Mr Nath said Kerala was the single largest beneficiary from this scheme as four towns out of the twelve were in the state, covering a wide range of products.

He also admitted that no town from either West Bengal or Orissa was included in this list but if a specific proposal came from the State Government, either under ASIDE scheme or under the Market Access Initiative Scheme, for focussed technological service, his ministry would look into the proposals.

He said these are set up not on the basis of geographical locations but on the basis of a laid out norms.

Responding to another question, Mr Nath said India has refused to accept certain clauses of the WTO agreements, due to which the Doha rounds of discussions have come to standstill.

He said India has been engaged in the WTO negotiations to ensure that its core concerns and interests continue to be adequately addressed at each stage of the negotiations. As required by the exigencies of the ongoing negotiations, India has been submitting proposals in the various negotiating bodies of the WTO with a view to pursuing its national interests and to protect the interests of the farmers, industry, service providers and trading entities.

Apart from this, India is part of the G-33 as well as NAMA-11 for raising the issues of the unders developed and developing countries in the WTO round of negotiations.

On the domestic front, the Government is continuously monitoring the surge in import of sensitive items and is committed to intervene in a WTO compatible manner to protect the interests of all domestic stakeholders, he added.

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