The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has proposed a plan of Rs 10,000 crore to develop 700 districts of the country as export hubs, which will be part of the upcoming foreign trade policy. It is likely to be announced in the Budget 2022-23.
According to The Economic Times, an official on the condition of anonymity said, “The Centre’s contribution will be around Rs 10,000 crore and the rest will be done by the states. This scheme will have huge benefits.” According to people familiar with the matter, the contribution of the states could be Rs 5,000-6,000 crore.
Under the ‘Districts as Exports Hub’ initiative, products and services with export potential have been identified in all the districts of the country, which include products from agricultural and toy clusters.
In the next three to five years, the government is targeting double-digit growth in exports from 500 districts of the country. India’s merchandise exports grew by 38.91% year-on-year to $37.81 billion in December 2021 and $301.38 billion in the April-December period.
“The district as an export hub is an initiative now, but it does not have any budgetary support. A new scheme has been proposed to the finance ministry,” the official said.
Finance Ministry allows two states to take additional loans of Rs 7,309 crore, many more in queue
Under this initiative, an institutional mechanism has been created in each district in the form of District Export Promotion Committees, whose primary function is to develop district specific export action plans in collaboration with all concerned stakeholders at the Centre, State and District level. (Export Action Plans) is to be prepared and implemented.
Apart from developing a database of all potential exports in each district, work is also being done to create an interface with the Indian Missions abroad, so that they can facilitate the exports in each district to reach the market outside India and provide potential buyers. be given access to search.
The Center also plans to help states and union territories prepare an annual ‘Export Ranking Index’ of districts in the respective states so that each district can be ranked according to its exports.
Industry officials said that the scheme has been launched keeping in view the upcoming important elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. Uttar Pradesh had implemented One District One Product program in its 75 districts. An industry official said, “UP has a large number of districts and promoting in this way will support agriculture exports from the state and across the country.”
,