Govt to launch portal to push exports by MSMEs, startups
- The platform will be available for traders in the next three to four months, the minister said
New Delhi: Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal announced the launch of the Trade Connect ePlatform to increase the participation of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), and startups in exports, a move aimed at promoting exports with the involvement of small and medium traders.
The platform will be available for traders in the next three to four months, the minister said.
Trade Connect ePlatform is an intermediary platform providing the facility to connect Indian exporters and entrepreneurs with various stakeholders in international trade, according to a senior official.
The portal will also help new exporters access key information and opportunities for MSME traders, which is not easily accessible for small traders due to restricted knowledge about the mechanism, the official added.
The platform will be designed in such a way that anyone can get all the information for export promotion activities, including contact details of all resource persons, the official cited above said.
The announcement in this regard was made by the minister during the second meeting of the reconstituted Board of Trade (BOT) held at the Bharat Mandapam on Tuesday.
Notably, BOT was constituted by merging the Council for Trade Development and Promotion with it. It advises the government on policy measures connected with trade and its first meeting was held on 13 September 2022.
At the meeting, Goyal stressed the need to internationalize the goods and services to help in improving the quality of the products and increase the size of the economy.
The minister also emphasized on making exports a people’s movement with all key stakeholders such as states, Centre and industry playing an equal role in accelerating exports.
The Board of Trade meeting focused on reviewing the export performance to achieve the $2 trillion export target by 2030, the priorities identified in the new Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2023 and the strategies and measures to be adopted to take forward the export growth.
At the meeting, Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) chairman Arun Kumar Garodia suggested connecting waterways with ports, bringing more steel products under the export parity price scheme, and bringing steel under the purview of remission of duties and taxes on exported products (RoDTEP).
India’s goods trade has shown an upward trend due to a rise in exports in December due to which the goods deficit narrowed by about 4% in December as compared to November, according to commerce ministry data.
Services exports fell marginally to $27.88 billion in December, compared to $28.69 billion in November, but remained higher than imports which fell to $13.25 billion from $13.40 billion in the previous month.
The merchandise trade deficit fell to $19.80 billion in December, from $20.58 million in November, amid a surge in electronic goods, drugs and pharmaceuticals, and iron-ore exports.
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First Published:16 Jan 2024, 10:03 PM IST
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