Address by FIEO President Mr. O P Garg
At the 41st Annual General Meeting of Federation of Indian Export Organisations
held on December 27, 2006 at New Delhi
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Mr.O.P. Garg, President, FIEO(4th right) addressing the 41st Annual General Meeting. On Mr. Garg’s right are, Mr. Ganesh Kumar Gupta, Vice President, FIEO; Ms. Tinoo joshi, Secretary General, FIEO; Mr. A Sakthivel, Chairman, FIEO(SR); and Mr. S.K. Jain, Chairman, FIEO(ER). While Mr. Garg’s left are Mr. Ajay Sahai, Director General, FIEO; Dr. R.K. Dhawan, Chairman, FIEO(NR); and Mr. S.K. Saraf, Chairman, FIEO(WR). |
It is a pleasure and privilege for me to welcome you all to this 41st Annual General Meeting of our Federation on behalf of my colleagues and myself. I am happy to see the large presence of our members here. It is your keen interest and involvement in our programmes and activities that has made our Federation a premier and respected institution in the trade and industry community of the country. I am grateful to everyone of you for your valuable contribution towards its growth.
We have circulated the Statement of Accounts and the Annual Report of our Federation for the period 2005-06 to the members and I trust it has your approval. A full year has passed since the 40th Annual General Meeting was held and I had the privilege of addressing you. Friends, thanks for your keen interest and feedback which helped me to focus sharply on the export issues that needed immediate attention. You may be aware that to help us in this direction, we have put in place some functional committees and have nominated Convenors and members to them. Needless to say, these Committees with your valuable inputs, ideas and insights helped me in addressing such issues before the concerned government authorities and I am happy to inform that on many fronts, we have been able to resolve such issues with the help of Government’s pro-active and favourable approach. I am sure in future also, you will continue to provide support and inputs to your Federation in the larger interest of exporting community.
On export front, as you are aware that India’s merchandise exports grew by 24% touching record level of US$ 102.7 billion during the financial year 2005-06 rising from US$ 81 billion in 2004-05 and exports now account for 13.1% of GDP and are growing three times more than the average GDP growth. A robust growth in exports during 2005 has resulted in India’s share in world exports to 0.9% from 0.8% in 2004. India’s world ranking as a merchandise exporter has gone up to 29th in 2005 from 30th in 2004.
In services sector, India’s performance has been more impressive with its share in world services exports increasing to 2.8% in 2005 from 1.9% in 2004. As a service exporter, India is now ranked 10th in the world compared to the 16th position it had in 2004.
India’s exports during the period April-October of the current fiscal 2006-07 was US$ 69.5 billion showing a 35% growth over the corresponding period of 2005-06. And exports during April-November’06 was $ 79.59 billion, registering a growth of 39%. Thus, India’s merchandise trade has well maintained the tempo of strong growth supported by domestic policy measures and robust global economic growth. The credit goes to the exporters as well as the policy makers in the Government that India is rising up the ranks of large exporters by the increasing competitiveness of the manufacturing sector underpinned by a rising technological superiority.
Friends, you are aware that yesterday, the presentation of FIEO’s "Niryat Shree" and "Niryat Bandhu" Awards by the Hon’ble Commerce & Industry Minister Mr. Kamal Nath ji, marked a very special day for all of us in the Federation. A total number of 141 exporters who have recorded outstanding performance in exports during year 2003-04 & 2004-05 and 18 export facilitators who have turned in equally high performance in providing support services received Gold/Silver Trophies and Certificates of Merits from our Hon’ble Commerce & Industry Minister. I am happy to convey the decision of the FIEO Managing Committee to give away the Life Time Achievement Awards to Mr. R L Toshniwal, Chairman & Managing Director, Banswara Syntex Limited, Mumbai and Chairman of the Synthetic & Rayon Textile Export Promotion Council and a Managing Committee Member of FIEO and to Mr. P M A Hakim for their dedicated contribution to the cause of exports. Mr. Hakim is former Secretary to the Government of India who held the important positions of Chairman, ECGC & Jt.CCI&E. On behalf of the Managing Committee of the Federation, I would again like to congratulate and commend the Award winners for their contribution to the growth of exports.
Friends, I feel proud in announcing that your Federation has now stationed its Head Office as well as its Northern Region office in its newly constructed building "Niryat Bhawan". I am grateful to our Hon’ble Commerce & Industry Minister for sparing his valuable time in spite of his busy schedule for inaugurating this FIEO House yesterday, the 26th December 2006. With this, FIEO’s long cherished dream of having its own building has been fulfilled. This complex has been constructed in just a span of three years as the Foundation of "Niryat Bhawan" was laid by the then Hon’ble Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Mr. Arun Jaitely on 26th May, 2003. Thanks to the dedicated efforts by FIEO office bearers, especially Past President Late Mr. V P Punj; Mr. Ramu S Deora, Mr. M Rafeeque Ahmed and Mr. Navratan Samdria whose marathon efforts helped completion of this complex in a record time.
Friends, you may also be aware that the Federation for the first time, had successfully organized an International Congress on Trade in Services in New Delhi from 4-6 October, 2006 which was addressed by our Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh. We sincerely thank the Commerce Secretary and the Hon’ble Minister of Commerce & Industry Mr. Kamal Nath for their support and guidance in making this event successful. This ServinXpo was addressed by international and national Speakers and attended by buyers from various service sectors and, of course, an active participation of exporters/institutions representing these sectors.
I would also like to mention that FIEO did an analysis of cost disability factors of Indian exports covering unrebated taxes & duties, inland freight cost, cost of power, cost of credit & ground level transaction cost. The disability factors ranges between 19-22% of exports as compared to 3-3.5% for most of our competitors. I am happy to inform that the same was accepted by the Department of Commerce as reflected in the Report of the Committee formulated to reduce transaction cost & even presented to the Parliament.
Friends, the activities undertaken by our Federation during 2005-06 have already been highlighted in the Report which has been circulated to all the members. Besides, these have also been highlighted in the printed speech, a copy of which has been given to you today.
I had the occasion to meet the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, while deliberating under the aegis of the Board of Trade. Hon’ble Prime Minister set a target of US$ 500 billion for two-way trade of both goods and services by 2010. Dr. Manmohan Singh was the most forthcoming in his reply where he made it very clear to all the ministries to work towards removing constraints faced by the Indian exporters including infrastructure bottlenecks, rigidity in labour laws and transactional delays.
As a follow-up of the meeting presided by the Hon’ble Prime Minister where it was decided to have a regular joint meeting between Commerce & Finance Ministers, the first such meeting took place on 21st December 2006 which was attended by me, Mr. Ganesh Gupta, Vice-President and the Director General, FIEO, besides chairmen of various export promotion councils. A large number of issues affecting competitiveness of Indian exports was discussed. We are hopeful that many of them will be resolved shortly. I am hopeful that such meetings shall be arranged at regular intervals so that exporting community is benefited by them.
At the end, I would like to express our gratitude and respect to the Hon’ble Commerce & Industry Minister, Mr. Kamal Nath; the Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Mr. Jairam Ramesh; the Commerce Secretary Mr. G K Pillai; the then Commerce Secretary Mr. S N Menon; the former DGFT Mr. K T Chacko; and the current DGFT, Mr. B S Meena; the Hon’ble Minister of Finance Mr. P Chaidambaram; the Dy. Chairman, Planning Commission, Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia; the Revenue Secretary Mr. K M Chandrashekhar; the Chairman (CBEC) Mr. V P Singh; the Governor, RBI Mr. Y V Reddy; the Joint Secretary (Drawback) Mr. P K Mohanty; and other senior officials in the central and state governments for their co-operation, guidance and support for all the programmes.
I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to our friends from the media who have always been pro-active in the matter of exports.
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A view of the members of the Managing Committee of FIEO. |
No organization can progress, nor can function efficiently, without the support of dedicated officers and staff. FIEO has been fortunate in having a committed workforce, which has enabled it to serve the exporting community to the optimum level, and built it up as a national institution. I would like to record here my deep appreciation to all the officers and staff of the Federation in the Headquarters, and all the Regions for their co-operation in making FIEO’s activities and programmes so successful.
Friends, with this AGM, I will be laying down the office of the President of the Federation. As I look back over the past two years, I am overwhelmed by the affection and regard I have received from all of you, and the officers and staff of this institution. My special thanks to the Vice-President, Mr. Ganesh Kumar Gupta; the Secretary General Mrs Tinoo Joshi; the Director General Mr. Ajay Sahai; the Regional Chairmen and Convenors of various Functional Committees for the excellent support they provided me in all my endeavours. It was a privilege to work with you, and I will always cherish the close association I have had with this large fraternity of exporters, and decision-makers in the different States and the Centre.
