"Tap emerging markets" : Nath tells Export Councils

New Delhi, Mar 8 (UNI) Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath has urged all Export Promotion Councils (EPCs) and related agencies to prepare country-specific export strategies to tap the growing trade potential of emerging markets.

"If we do not occupy the space now, somebody else will," the Minister said while urging the exporters to make all out efforts to penetrate non-traditional markets such as the African and the Caribbean countries, the CIS states including the Russian Federation and some of the East Asian countries, which had been witnessing an economic surge.

Presiding over the Fourth Meeting of the Board of Trade here last night, Mr Nath stated that trade facilitation measures would receive the highest priority as a means of reducing transaction cost in order to enhance global competitiveness of Indian exports and assured exporters that procedural irritants would be removed.

Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh attended the meeting along with Commerce Secretary G K Pillai, Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) B S Meena and other senior officials from various Ministries including the Ministries of Finance and Textiles.

In response to a query, the Minister indicated that the Annual Supplement to the Foreign Trade Policy 2007 would be announced sometime in the first week of April.

Participants from trade and industry complimented the Minister on India achieving 1 per cent share of global trade, while giving their inputs for the coming Annual Supplement to the Foreign Trade Policy.

Stressing the need to think big on the export front, Mr Nath said: "When in August 2004, the UPA government set up the target of doubling India's share of global merchandise trade in the next five years, many of you found it to be too ambitious. Yet the next three years proved us right." The Minister further urged exporters to advise on the ways and means to link the exports for providing greater job opportunities in the country.

Members urged the government to ensure stability of policies with no mid-year changes or sudden withdrawals to enable long-term planning for exports. They favoured continuation of the Duty Entitlement Pass Book (DEPB) Scheme beyond March 31, 2007, pending formulation of an alternate scheme.

Among those who attended were Mr Malvinder M Singh, Mr Irfan Allana, Mr Ravi Raheja, Mr Prashant Raheja, Mr Ramu S Deora, Mr Habil S Khorakiwala (FICCI), Mr G K Gupta (FIEO), Mr Kiran Karnik (NASSCOM), Mr Sanjay Kothari (GJEPC), Mr Vijay Kumar Agarwal (AEPC), Mr Prem Malik (Texprocil), Mr Sanjeev Saran (SRTEPC), Mr Navrattan Samdaria (EPCH), Mr Satish Wagh (Chemexcil), Mr D B Mody Pharmexcil), Mr A C Jose (Coir Board), Mr Nalin Kohli (ESC), Mr T Vasu (EPC for EOUs&SEZs), Mr Rakesh Shah (EEPC), representative from CLE and Mr T C Venkat Subramanian (Exim Bank).

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