The Government is working on a multi-pronged strategy to enhance exports competitiveness and address infrastructural bottleneck, a top Commerce Ministry official said. Contracting for the eighth month in a row, India's exports slipped 10.3 per cent in July to $23.13 billion, hit by global slowdown and a dip in crude oil prices, which in turn impacted the value of petroleum products.
Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said the ministry is focusing on exports sectors with a huge potential such as pharmaceuticals, ready-made garments, leather, gems and jewellery, chemicals and agro-chemicals. Trade facilitation, she felt, can play a vital role in boosting competitiveness of domestic exports.
“In trade facilitation, we are dividing our approach into two pieces -- short-term steps which we can do quickly to make things easier for exports and long-term, in which a calibrated strategy (is required),” Teaotia told PTI in an interview.
“Another (important area) is infrastructural bottleneck. Where are the low-hanging fruits for usIJ If it's just simply traffic management at a port, that should not be so difficult to resolve. You can look at IT tools to speed up processing of the cases.” The ministry is also looking at cost of credit for exporters, the Secretary said.