Buoyed by the success of the DefExpo 2020 held recently in the state capital and the investments that came after the UP Investors’ Summit in February 2018, the Uttar Pradesh government has stepped up efforts for achieving the goal of becoming a trillion dollar economy by 2024.
The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to develop all the 75 districts of the state as potential export hubs in the near future. Putting the proposal in top gear, the state government has constituted 10-member district level export promotion committees headed by the respective district magistrate or chief development officer.
“The committees will be entrusted with the task of preparing their district export plan (DEP),” Principal Secretary (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Export Promotion) Navneet Sehgal said here.
Sehgal, who was recently nominated as the state trade facilitation commissioner, said the decision to develop all the 75 districts as potential export hubs was taken in the light of an advisory given by the Central government in this regard.
The district-level committees would include the directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) nominee and district industries and entrepreneurship promotion centre deputy commissioner as co-chairman and convenor, respectively.
Besides, the panel would comprise members of the lead bank apart from representatives of the various state and Central government departments and agencies.
To implement the ambitious vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to convert each district in India into an export hub, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget 2020-21 speech said that each district should be developed as an export hub and the efforts of the Central and the respective state governments were being synergised and institutional mechanisms created.
The Union Commerce and Industry Ministry through DGFT has already been engaging with states to initiate preparation and implementation of a DEP specific to each district through an institutional structure at the district level.
Besides, the DGFT is developing a portal to enable states to upload all information related to the products with export potential of every district. The preliminary exercise will include an assessment of a district to identify the current export profile and potential.
The key officers related to agriculture, horticulture, livestock, fisheries, handicrafts, handlooms and industry in the district, apart from the lead banker, will work towards the participation of export promotion councils, quality and technical standards bodies. Central government departments like MSME, heavy industry, revenue and textiles will be part of such meetings.
The products identified for exports from the 75 districts include leather, sand and stone articles, spices, garments, wool, food products, ceramics, cement, silk, carpet, glass items, metal crafts, sports goods, pharmaceuticals, engineering goods, auto parts, poultry products, vegetables, cut flowers, forest produce, bamboo products and scientific instruments.
Meanwhile, the state government is preparing an export policy to give an impetus to the MSME sector, which accounted for 80 per cent of the total exports of about Rs 1.14 lakh crore in 2018-19. The state had engaged the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) to prepare the policy draft.