Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 11 (IANS) Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma Tuesday met industry leaders and assured them the government would address their concerns, especially related to foreign trade.

“Cost of credit, interest subvention, availability of dollar credit in view of the currency volatility… these are issues which have been discussed,” Sharma told reporters after the meeting of the Board of Trade.

Sharma said he has already raised the issue with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and appropriate action was expected soon.

The meeting took place just a couple of days before the announcement of the annual supplement to the trade policy.

The minister said diversification has helped boost the growth of exports in recent years.

“We added 41 new markets for incentives in Africa, Latin America, Oceania and Central Asia. Labour intensive industry received our special attention as we recognised the need of protecting the interests of millions of people engaged in textiles, leather and gems and jewellery with fluctuating global demand,” he said.

Leading industrialists including CII President B Muthuraman, Apollo Tyres Chairman Onkar Kunwar, ITC head Y.C. Deveshwar and TVS Motors’ Venu Srinivasan, and the heads of various export promotion bodies attended the meeting.

The board stressed the need to meaningfully engage with China, which has emerged as India’s largest trading partner, with two-way trade touching $60 billion last year. However, the balance of trade is heavily in favour of China, with the deficit rising to $20 billion.

“India’s exports to China are largely commodity-based and iron ore dominates the export basket. There are areas of concerns as well as opportunities,” according to official statement released after the meeting.