Prabhu was speaking at a seminar on 'Bilateral Trade', on Saturday, at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2019, in Mahatma Mandir.
The government of India is targeting to double its exports to USD 1 trillion in the next five years. Commerce and industries minister Suresh Prabhu shared his vision to increase exports from India to untapped regions of the world therefore, providing an impetus to foreign trade.
Prabhu was speaking at a seminar on 'Bilateral Trade', on Saturday, at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2019, in Mahatma Mandir.
Prabhu said, "Today, our manufacturing export is at around USD 330 billion and we export services of around USD 200 billion annually. This is almost half a trillion USD and we have been targeting to double it by making USD 1 trillion every year. There is a challenge before us to do so but, at the same time, there is also an opportunity as there is a disruption in foreign trade markets at the global level."
Prabhu referred to the trade war between the United States and China over tariffs increased by both the nations on goods imported to their respective countries from the counterpart.
"We have the best opportunity to tap the export markets otherwise, some other player will capture that market. For this, we need to focus on improving the quality of our products, may it be manufacturing or services," Prabhu added.
The Union minister also said that the government of India framed several policies that gave boost to exports from India. He cited examples of air cargo policy and cluster-based export policy.
Talking further on the issue, the minister said, "We have been exporting our products into big markets or matured markets like European Union, USA, Japan and other but preserving these regions, we have to expand our footfalls to other untapped regions. That is why we are focusing over African, Central Asian and Latin American nations where the market of exports has nominal presence."
Prabhu said that India is surplus in food production as against 610 billion ton production of food every year in India, population growth was lesser. He advocated to export quality food like milk, meat, vegetables and fruits into the newly recognised market for export. He also put stress on service exports as it had great capacity for employment generation.
The experts in this seminar also opined that the growth of exports from India had been stopped in last several years could be revived and increased during trade war.
JS Deepak, Ambassador to WTO from India in his presentation explained that India's export remained flat around USD 300 billion in last seven years and exports as a percentage of GDP went down from 16.5% in 2011 to 11.3% in 2017. The secretary in ministry of commerce and Industries of government of India Dr Anup Wadhawan also shared his views on trade and exports sector in India.
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