Commerce ministry plans trade promotion bodies in 15 countries
20 Dec 2018
Faced with dwindling exports and ballooning imports, India’s commerce ministry is looking at new ways to promote exports from the country, including the setting up of trade offices in various countries to facilitate exports from the country.
The commerce ministry is examining the proposal to set up trade promotion bodies in 15 countries to promote exports of SMEs from India, commerce minister Suresh Prabhu said while speaking at the inaugural session of the 15th Global SME Business Summit in New Delhi on Tuesday.
These are over and above the various trade promotion bodies that work with the government to promote exports.
The minister spoke about the changing of trade regimes globally and establishment of new trade routes based on availability of labour and skill. Prabhu said that Global Value Chains (GVCs) are specifically significant for SMEs as they provide them the opportunity to contribute to exports without bearing the setup costs.
The concept of trade has been changing where larger enterprises increasingly rely on outsourcing the manufacturing activities. This practice has proved quite advantageous to the MSMEs where they can participate in the exports through manufacturing of intermediate products, he minister pointed out.
He further stated that the commerce ministry is also working on a comprehensive strategy to boost the MSME sector by granting new patents in record time. New intellectual property regime is being launched to strengthen the IPRs of Indian MSMEs as well as protecting IPRs of the other countries.
The two-day summit has been organized by the ministry of MSME in partnership with CII.