Open House with B. S. Meena
at Chennai
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| On the dais, from left, are Mr. A K Singh, Joint DGFT (Policy), New Delhi; Mr. M Saikumar, Additional Export Commissioner & Zonal Jt. DGFT, Chennai; Mr. B S Meena, Director General of Foreign Trade; Mr. A Sakthivel, Vice President, FIEO; Mr. K T Chacko, Director, IIFT; Mr. M Rafeeque Ahmed, Past President, FIEO, and Mr. Raj Kumar Barthwal, Commissioner of Customs. |
The annual supplement to Foreign Trade Policy has come as a sigh of relief amidst a series of stringent fiscal and monetary measures being announced to contain inflation, said FIEO Vice President Mr. A. Sakthivel while addressing an Open House on 27th April 2007 at Chennai. The Open House was organized by the Southern Region office of FIEO with the Director General of Foreign Trade, Mr. B.S. Meena.
Mr. Sakthivel complimented the Commerce Minister for announcing incentives under the Supplement for infrastructure development in the agro sector and export of high-end technology products. He said the Supplement reflects the profound commitment of the Commerce Ministry to reduce transaction costs and to increase transparency and accountability through fine-tuning and simplifying the existing procedures. FIEO Vice President, however, expressed discontent for not including garment sector under the "Focus Product" Scheme which he believes is an employment intensive sector.
Commenting on the supplement, Mr. M. Rafeeque Ahmed, a Past President of FIEO welcomed the incentives announced for the export of branded products. He said these incentives would inspire the domestic manufacturers of branded goods to explore overseas markets.
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The Director of Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Mr. K.T. Chacko, in his address said nearly 40% of the export growth in 2006-07 was due to increased prices of petroleum products, metals and ores which might not be sustained in future. Referring to services sector, he said, India’s services exports totaled at $70 billion was only $10 billion more than imports by this sector and thus the net forex earnings by the sector were only five per cent of its total exports. He expressed his anxieties over the |
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A view of the participants. |
projected decline in world trade growth from 3.7% in 2006 to 3% this year.
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Mr. B.S. Meena in his address called for a close coordination and joint partnership of government and industry to achieve the 160 billion dollar export target fixed by the Hon’ble Commerce Minister for the current fiscal. He hoped that the government’s liberal trade environment would help our export basket to progressively change from traditional products to value added exports and would help us achieve the target. Mr. Meena was accompanied by Mr. A.K. Singh, Jt. DGFT (Policy), Mr. M. Saikumar, Zonal Jt. DGFT and Mr. Raj Kumar Barthwal, Commissioner of Customs during the interaction with more than 180 participating exporters. |
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Mr. A Sakthivel addressing the gathering. |
