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WITH the five-year Export-Import (Exim) policy now in place, greater synergy between the Exim policy and the medium-term export strategy the Commerce Ministry unveiled a couple of months ago could be attempted to push up the country's exports to the desired level, says the former Commerce Secretary, Mr Prabir Sengupta.
Talking to Business Line here, Mr Sengupta, who was involved in the preparation of the 2002-07 Exim policy till January 2002 prior to his superannuation, said that the medium-term export strategy, for instance, found a great deal of export potentials for auto components. He said the auto component apex body too forwarded a detailed proposal in this regard which found some echo in the Budget 2002-03.
Mr Sengupta is of the view synergy between the Exim policy and the medium-term export strategy could be achieved through a "focussed market promotion and product identification" exercise.
"I see another synergy in the announcement of the Focus: Africa programme" between the Exim policy and MTES, he said, adding that the monitoring committee set up for the medium-term export strategy would carry forward this synergy.
Stating that export policies and incentives were in some sense a continuum, Mr Sengupta said that despite this, there is essentially a need to take care of the export sector, to sharpen focus on some of the aspects depending upon the dynamics of the situation and in some cases a close look at what is happening around in the markets.
Mr Sengupta particularly mentioned that the broadened market access initiative programme, agri export zones and State involvement in export efforts were clear responses to the dynamics of the situation. "The time has come when exports can be an instrument of economic growth and there must be a total participation of all players," he added. He said that is why under assistance to States for infrastructural development for exports (ASIDE), the allocation has been enhanced from Rs 49.5 crore last year to a sum of Rs 330 crore for the current fiscal.
He said that the Government could at best be a facilitator as it could not directly export and the new facilitation measures that have been incorporated into the policy include 100 per cent retention in Exchange Earner Foreign Currency (EEFC) accounts and the attempts to provide lower cost of credit to exporters.
In a situation when the world economy is going through a stagnant period, competition becomes fierce and "even a little benefit in terms of cost of credit should help the exporters" to match the advantageous terms their counterparts enjoy elsewhere.
He admitted that the main challenge in reducing transaction cost is how to address the issue, which is getting beyond the domain of the Commerce Ministry as the problems are associated with the overall levels of development.
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