It is not just a 100-day proposal to boost trade. The Department of Commerce is working on a five-year action plan to provide the building blocks for attaining the goal of $2 trillion exports of goods and services by 2030  which will build on the 100-day agenda road-map of the government and go beyond, sources said.

“The focus areas for the five-year plan is likely to be expansion and diversification of products and markets,  facilitating MSME  export, growth of e-commerce, boost to the services sector, improvement of logistics and ease of doing business and bringing down transaction time and costs, among others,” an official tracking the matter told businessline.

It will comprise various interventions that the government is planning over a longer term to ensure that India’s exports remain on a steady growth path with the final objective of attaining $1 trillion exports of goods and $1 trillion exports of services by 2030, they added.

Increasing India’s meagre share in world trade is also one of the goals for the government. In 2023, the country’s share in global goods exports and imports stood at 1.8 per cent and 2.8 per cent respectively, per the WTO.

The Commerce Department has carried out discussions with various stakeholders including export promotion and industry bodies and taken inputs for the plan. “The Department is giving final touches to the five-year action plan before it is put in the public domain,” the official said.

Last fiscal, India’s exports were hit by slowdown in global demand as turmoil in the Middle East and  Russia’s war on Ukraine continued to affect economies worldwide. India’s goods exports slipped 3 per cent to $ 437 billion in 2023-24 while service exports increased 4.9 per cent to $341.1 billion during the fiscal, per government data.

In the current fiscal things appear more upbeat. Goods exports in the first quarter of 2024-25 increased 5.84 per cent to $109.96 billion. This is in line with international organisations like WTO predicting steady growth in world trade in 2024.

Growth challenge

India’s export growth challenge lies in diversifying its markets as well as products. For over one and a half decades, the US and the UAE have remained the top export destinations with the two accounting for about 25 per cent export share in 2023-24. While exports to new markets like the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and Indonesia have increased consistently over the recent years, there is scope for much more diversification, both in terms of products and destinations.

“The Commerce Department wants to focus on increasing exports to markets such as Central Asia, Africa and Latin America. Exports could also go up considerably in countries and regions with which FTAs are being negotiated such as the EU, the UK and Oman,” industry sources said.

While India’s top exports still remain traditional items like petroleum products, gems & jewellery, textiles, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, a breakthrough has been achieved in terms of increase in exports of telecom products, especially mobile phones. “There is opportunity in high-tech exports and that could be one of the thrust areas,” the official said.

govt efforts

It has been a consistent endeavor of the government to reduce costs and time taken for exports by reducing paperwork and facilitating online transactions, the official said, adding that this will be further enhanced, especially through specific zones like SEZs, e-commerce hubs and district export hubs, the official added.

Under the 100-day agenda road-map, the Commerce Department is hopeful of launching its Trade Connect’ e-platform to help exporters do business and get in touch with relevant stakeholders of international trade, finalising standard operating procedures for negotiating FTAs; introducing certain amendments in SEZ rules to make them more attractive, making e-commerce hubs operative and some other measures to boost exports.

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