New Delhi, Jul 7 (FN Bureau) Trade and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday urged the business community in the Indo-Pacific region to step up collaboration in boosting trade and growth in emerging sectors in the region. “We can expand our export-import collaboration in areas of clean tech, tourism, logistics, sustainable agriculture, startups, healthcare, education and life sciences,” Goyal said. He asked companies to set up their manufacturing base and expedite integration into each other’s supply chains.
The minister was addressing the CII’s special plenary with trade ministers of the Indo-Pacific region on “Developing a Road Map for Shared Prosperity”. Goyal decried non-tariff measures acting as a major trade barriers. He said that the abundance of trade agreements in Indo-Pacific has led to a decline in tariff rates over time. However, non-tariff measures, he added, act as a major trade barrier in the region. “Trade facilitation can ease cross-border movement of goods.” The minister said as the world moves to realign from over concentrated and risky supply chains, it can trust India to provide a multitude of investment and manufacturing opportunities.
“India’s track record should give confidence to our friends that it will be their natural and most reliable ally in years to come,” Goyal said. He said India endorses the concept of working towards ensuring a transparent, trustworthy, dependable and reliable supply chain.” Goyal said the Production Linked Incentive schemes worth USD26 billion covering 13 sectors have been announced to create and nurture global manufacturing champions and invited companies from the region to utilise these incentives.