SME Times News Bureau | 02 Jan, 2021
Exporters’ body FIEO said that the New Year 2021 brings a ray of hope
and optimism for the exporting community as we all expect that the worst effect
of Covid-19 will vanish from the globe and effective vaccines will bring life
and economy back on track.
We are confident that a V- shaped recovery will be witnessed in world
trade and we will recover much more from what we lost in 2020, said FIEO
President Sharad Kumar Saraf.
Fortunately for us, the decline in exports in the 3rd and
4th quarter of 2020 has been largely addressed with even a few
months of positive exports. Since the first and second quarter have been pretty
bad, we may end the financial year 2020-21 with exports of around USD 290 bn, added
FIEO President.
However, looking into the extremely good order booking position for food
including processed food, pharma, medical and diagnostic products, technical
textiles, chemical, plastics, electronics and networking products, we should
endeavor to take exports to USD 350 Bn in 2021-22. This looks ambitious but
definitely achievable, if we address our supply side challenges.
The FIEO Chief further added that with the WTO now in its
recent forecast has projected a 9.2% decline in the volume
of world merchandise trade for 2020, followed by a 7.2%
rise in 2021.
Further the global trade body in an optimistic scenario also said that
the global merchandise trade could fall 13% in 2020 with a
rebound 21% in 2021, which also adds to the enthusiasm among the exporting
community.
The FIEO Chief reiterated that exports growth is vital to clock 8% plus GDP
growth and to reach the milestone of USD 5 trillion economy.
Our exports strategy should be two pronged: one focussing on sectors
where major imports are happening and other to boost traditional sectors, which
are important for exports as well as employment.
Saraf said that today, the major contributor to global trade consists
of: Electronics & Electricals, Machinery, Automobile, Pharma and Medical
equipment, accounting for about 40% of Global Imports, in which our current
share is less than 0.9%.
It is very satisfying that the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme
is rightly focusing on these sectors. Once we create production capabilities in
these products, pushing exports at a brisk pace should not be a challenge.
The FIEO President however added that both for attracting exports led
FDI and exports, we require robust FTAs with some of our major partners like:
US, EU and UK, which should be our priority.