PROPER MARKETING NEEDED TO INCREASE
HANDICRAFT EXPORTS: L.K.ADVANI
MINISTRY
GEARED UP TO ACHIEVE 20% GROWTH IN HANDICRAFTS EXPORTS: KASHIRAM
RANA
"By proper marketing,
packaging and quality control, the market share of our handicrafts
in International market can be increased substantially,"
the Deputy Prime Minister, Shri L K Advani said, while laying
the foundation stone of India Exposition Mart in Greater Noida
today. He hoped that the Mart would be instrumental in growth
of exports in this sector.
Presiding over the
function, the Union Textiles Minister, Shri Kashiram Rana, said
that in recent years exports from the cottage sector has increased
phenomenally in which the share of handicrafts was around 16 per
cent. The constant efforts by the Ministry in promoting exports
has yielded good results and now it aims to achieve 20 per cent
growth in coming years.
The Minister
of Commerce & Industry, and Law & Justice Shri Arun Jaitely
was the guest of honour. In his address he called the project
an excellent example of public–private collaboration. He said
that there was a need for such a facility to tap the immense export
potential in the cottage sector. He said that the country aimed
to increase its share in world trade by one per cent by 2007 and
the Mart would help in achieving this goal. He also hoped that
the project when completed would create new employment opportunities
and improve the country’s economy.
The Minister of State
for Human Resources Development, Shri Ashok Pradhan, ministers
in the Uttar Pradesh government, senior officers of the Ministry
of Textiles and handicraft exporters were also present on the
occasion.
A joint venture
of Ministry of Textiles, Greater Noida Development Authority,
Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts and leading exporters,
the India Exposition Mart is the country’s first infrastructural
project for the cottage sector. It is conceived as a nodal point
that will provide permanent international marketing platform for
exporters and international buyers. Spread over 45 acres of land,
the complex will have 900 show rooms, state-of-the-art conference
room, business centre, communication facilities and even interpreter
and secretarial services. Scheduled to be completed by January
2005, the first phase of the project will cost about Rs. 172 crore
for which major contribution has come from the exporters.
