Engineering exports promotion body to encourage small firms in tier-II, III towns to join exports bandwagon

New Delhi, Oct 17 (FN Agency) Seeking to increase country’s share in the global trade pie, Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) of India on Saturday said that it would expand its presence in tier-II and III cities and encourage small firms to join the global value chain and production networks. “Our strategy is to create more engineering exporters by moving into smaller towns all over the country through opening of EEPC India Chapters,” EEPC India Chairman Mahesh Desai said. He said that EEPC India has been carrying out several capacity building programmes and adding more and more engineering firms to onboard the exports bandwagon. “Our objective is to move up the ladder and be a part of the global value chain and production networks, particularly, in light of the renewed thrust by the government to sign free trade agreements (FTAs).

It is understood that India is in touch with few more countries other than Australia, UK, EU and UAE to have FTAs. The developments are quite heartening,” Desai said. Engineering exports during the period of April-September 2021 is about US$ 52.34 billion which is a growth of 60 per cent over April-September 2020 (US$ 32.72 billion) and 37 per cent growth over April-September 2019 (US$ 38.26 billion). “Annualizing this means that engineering goods exports will be around US$ 105 billion in 2021-22 and close to the target set for engineering,” the EEPC India Chairman said. Desai said that required interventions on part of the government to boost exports are being taken up with relevant authorities. “We are collecting the problems faced by our exporters and other engineering companies and taking up with the appropriate authorities, including Commerce Ministry, DGFT, CBIC, BIS, Ministry of Steel and Ministry of MSME among others,” he said. Engineering goods sector has shown stellar performance in the first six months of the fiscal and is expected to continue the growth run. “However, we need to observe the trend in the festival months (October and November) as holidays may lead to some slowdown in certain parts of the country and in December in Western countries,” the EEPC India Chairman noted.