Rs.330 CRORE FOR ASSISTANCE TO STATES TO BUILD
EXPORT INFRASTRUCTURE
EXPORT STRATEGY FOCUSSES ON
GREATER INVOLVEMENT OF STATES
In a major initiative to
ensure greater involvement of the States and Union Territories
in the export effort with a view to achieving higher growth, the
government has allocated a sum of Rs.330 crore for Assistance
to States for Development of Infrastructure for Exports and other
Allied Activities during the current year (2002-03) – representing
a record 12-fold increase from a level of Rs.165 crore spent for
this purpose during the last six years from 1996-97 to 2001-02.
At a Conference on Export Promotion Efforts with the Chief Secretaries
of States and Union Territories held under the Chairmanship of
Shri Dipak Chatterjee, Commerce Secretary, here last evening,
the importance of much greater involvement of the States in export
promotion was underlined, especially in view of the fact that
exports would contribute directly to the accelerated economic
development of the States. Emphasising the Centre’s commitment
to assist the States in overcoming the existing constraints faced
by them in the export effort, the Department of Commerce, Government
of India, has initiated a series of schemes in the recent past
viz., the Scheme for Assistance to States for Development of Infrastructure
for Exports (ASIDE) introduced from 2001-02, the setting up of
Special Economic Zones (SEZs) announced in March 2001 and the
setting up of Agri Export Zones. Out of the Rs.330 crore allocated
for the current year, Rs.160 crore has been released already in
the first quarter under the ASIDE Scheme which is the single most
important initiative launched by the government to involve the
States in exports. States were urged to speed up utilisation under
the scheme and to designate a nodal agency for this purpose. Further,
a Market Assistance Scheme has been initiated to give financial
assistance for consultancy and identifying new markets for export
of products from States and Union Territories with the primary
objective of boosting India’s exports.
In order to implement the various
schemes, the State governments have been requested to set up institutional
mechanisms like Export Promotion Councils (EPCs) under the Chairmanship
of the Chief Ministers of the States as also State level Export
Promotion Committees under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretaries
and Export Promotion Committees at the District level from where
substantial exports take place. States have also been urged to
put in place Export Policies based on export promotion plans for
the major commodities exported by them in consultation with the
concerned EPCs. Chief Secretaries of the major States participated
in the meeting along with senior representatives of State governments
and Union Territories and senior officials of the Government of
India including Shri Atul Sinha, Secretary (North East); Shri
Vinay Bansal, Additional Secretary & Financial Adviser; Shri
D.K. Mittal, Joint Secretary in-charge of States Cell, Ministry
of Commerce & Industry; Shri Anil Swarup, Chairman, Agriculture
& Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA);
Shri Anoop Pujari, Addl. DGFT and representatives of Central Board
of Excise & Customs and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The government attaches the highest
priority to greater involvement of States in its export strategy
which aims at increasing India’s share in global exports from
the present level of 0.6% to at least 1% over the next few years.
The Conference noted that the States should assume leadership
role in exports as increase in exports from the States and Union
Territories would create additional employment, increased per
capita income and new market opportunities in the States and it
would, therefore, be in the interest of the States themselves
to participate fully in the country’s overall export effort.
