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G. Srinivasan

The importance of services exports has come in the wake of the problems plaguing software exports which pan out $8 billion per annum in recent years but do not get included in the country's export earnings tally.

NEW DELHI, April 19

BUOYED by the overshooting of export target with earnings going beyond $50 billion in fiscal 2002-03, the inaugural year of the Tenth Plan, the Commerce Ministry is all set to firm up the target for the current fiscal in the first week of May.

Highly-placed sources in the Government told Business Line here that the Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley, would chair a meeting with the chiefs of the export promotion councils and commodity boards in the first week of May in order to get their assessment of the ground level situation and also to dovetail it into the overall export target.

The aftermath of the Iraq situation and the overall halting recovery of the world economy would also be taken into account in evolving a realistic export target for the current fiscal, they said.

Sources said that, besides fixing export target by taking into account merchandise goods, the Commerce Minister would like to ascertain how much services exports the country could compass in the current fiscal, in view of the special thrust given to this sector in the current year's modified export-import (Exim) Policy announced on March 31, 2003.

Mr Jaitley took the initiative in not only recognising the importance of service exports but also introduced a scheme for the first time for the promotion of exports of services in this year's Exim Policy.

Hence at the meeting to firm up the export target, interaction with representatives of the services industry such as health sector, tourism and entertainment as identified in this year's Exim Policy would also be a new feature to ascertain how much this segment of the national economy could contribute to the country's overall exports.

The importance of services exports has come in the wake of the problems plaguing software exports which pan out $8 billion per annum in recent years but do not get included in the country's export earnings tally.

In the wake of the reported draft legislation in four US states such as New Jersey, Washington, Connecticut and Maryland to ban government bodies from outsourcing IT work to foreign companies and also the problems faced by the Indian software professionals in such far-flung countries as Malaysia, Indonesia and the Netherlands, the Commerce Ministry is seeking a proper streamlining of visa procedures overseas through its proposals in the ongoing negotiations to the General Agreement on Trade in Services.

It is in this context that the Ministry has plumped for initiating an interaction with all stakeholders of services exports for the first time for firming up overall export target in order to reassure them that policy support and governmental intervention to set right their problems would be the priority area for action, sources added.

The interaction with the CII on services industry before the modified Exim Policy for this year was announced was also part of this strategy, they said.

Moreover, as State Governments have the `cutting-edge' in services industry as most of it is spread across the country, efforts would be to sensitise States to the untapped potentials of this emerging export industry through proper policy interventions, the sources added.

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