India’s merchandise exports this financial year will touch last year’s levels despite shipments contracting 6.5% year-on-year in the first eight months and slowdown in global trade, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said Wednesday.
“Globally growth has been negative, international trade is in the negative territory, estimates are that this year international trade may fall, and in that perspective after having grown so rapidly we are looking at a phase of consolidation…and I expect that in the current year, we will maintain our figures of last year and strengthen our processes and our domestic capacities, capabilities to be able to grow at much faster rates in the years to come,” Goyal told reporters here.
Merchandise exports in FY 23 stood at $451 billion while in the first eight months of this fiscal they have contracted by 6.51 % and stand at $ 278.8 billion. Exports of services during the eight-month period stood at $ 220.66 billion, up 5.93% on year.
Speaking at the One District One Product (ODOP) awards and Aatmanirbhar Utsav Goyal said the foreign affairs and commerce ministries are working together to boost exports.
The awards were given away by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. In his address Jaishankar said foreign policy, foreign economic policy and foreign commerce policy are three faces of the same thing.
He said both the commerce and external affairs ministry are working together closely and it has been reflected in the country’s export performance in the last two years.
Goyal also said that the country is not “anti-imports” and wherever required, companies can import goods. “Aatmanirbhar Bharat is not about stopping imports,” he added.
Further he said that before the forthcoming general elections, the country’s economy is expected to touch $ 4 trillion.
Jaishankar said that the ODOP initiative has the potential to drive the growth of the tourism sector which in turn will push employment generation.
The ODOP (one district one product) initiative is aimed at selecting, branding, and promoting one product from each district of the country. It is also aimed at creating sustainable employment at the district level while promoting holistic socio-economic development.
Jaishankar added that while making in India is “very” crucial, branding and promotion of products are important as it helps in increasing demand.
ODOP has been a great promotor of what has been made across the country, he said adding Geographical Indicators (GI) today are one of the big areas of competition. GI is actually a “very powerful” part of branding and that ODOP will definitely provide, he said.
