Commerce & Industry Minister, Suresh Prabhu, on Friday reviewed the sectoral export promotion plans prepared by Ministries and Departments in New Delhi.

During review of the sectoral export promotion plans, Prabhu said the Department of Commerce will offices in Indian missions abroad for accelerating export promotion activities.

He said a conference of Heads of Indian missions has been scheduled in June end in which trade promotion measures will be discussed.

The Minister stressed on branding of Indian products and export credit as important focus areas for export promotion.

He also said that efforts should be made for getting priority sector lending status for export credit and directed the logistics division of the Ministry to work upon measureslike bulk cargo transportation to reduce freight costs.

The Minister suggested that each Ministry and Department should set targets for increasing exports of their product and product groups in 2018-2019.Commerce Minister emphasised that exports are a national priority and an integrated approach is required to promote exports as a joint mission.

He directed that this forum should be institutionalized and inter-ministerial meetings be held every quarter to resolve difficulties and assess the progress across sectors.

Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said that although exports have grown in the past year, a quantum jump is required.

She also emphasized that branding is a major issue cutting across all sectors and Brand Equity Foundation is formulating a proposal to support line Ministries for branding export products.

Director General Foreign Trade Alok Chaturvedi informed the participants that Department of Commerce is preparing a ‘100 Billion Additional Export Strategy’ which will be released shortly.

Merchandise Exports in 2017-18 grew by 9.8% YoY while Services Exports were up by 17.8% YoY. Total Exports were up by 12.9% in 2017-18 as compared to 2016-17.