India’s Future Export Opportunities are in New Emerging Markets : Anand Sharma.

New Delhi: Addressing the CII National Conference and Annual Session 2010, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Mr Anand Sharma said that India’s future export and investment opportunities will be found in new geographies in ASEAN, Latin America, and Africa where a new middle-class similar to India’s own is rising. The Minister stressed the several economic diplomacy initiatives that the government was spearheading to reach out to these new markets. Mr. Sharma pointed to IBSA, BRICS, and India’s engagement with ASEAN through multiple channels such as the India-ASEAN FTA, India-Singapore CECA, the BIMSTEC and the Ganga-Mekong initiative as evidence of the seriousness that the government attached to its relationship with these new geographies.

The Minister urged industry to aggressively seek opportunities in these new markets even as the government facilitated the process through FTAs and other economic diplomacy initiatives. Mr. Sharma pointed out that his ministry has already taken steps in this direction by adding incentive schemes that targeted these focus markets in new geographies in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Mr. Sharma pointed out that almost half the world’s economic growth is being fuelled by BRIC countries, and they will account for a higher share of the growth or global economic output in the future.

Commenting on the need for a comprehensive strategy for developing India’s competitiveness, Mr. Sharma said that the government realized that part of the effort to diversify India’s export and investment relationship was dependent on being able to create a dynamic manufacturing sector in India. The Minister believed that the new National Manufacturing and Investment Zone (NMIZ) policy under consideration will provide a package of incentives and policy reforms would help in developing Indian manufacturing sector and encourage integrated development of manufacturing hubs and urban centers with the best of technology.

Earlier, CII President Mr. Venu Srinivasan, in his remarks  had voiced industry’s concerns on the paucity of skills and the constrains it puts on India’s economic growth and competitiveness. The CII President had also stressed the centrality of a manufacturing policy to India’s emergence as a major economy and a trading power. In his closing remarks Mr. Hari Bhartia, President-Designate, CII reiterated the importance of new geographies for India’s trade and investment opportunity . Mr. Bhartia also urged the government to work closely with industry to meet the new challenges in trade policy being posed by linking trade and environmental concerns and other new types of trade barriers related to social and labor related standards.

Source : orissadiary.com