Govt's priority is to keep exports open: Piyush Goyal

New Delhi, Apr 9 (KNN) Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that the government's priority is to keep exports open so that the country doesn't lose its export markets.

''Even in these challenging times, we have to keep our priority to keep exports open, so that we don't lose our export market permanently,'' Goyal said at an interaction, held on Wednesday,  through Video conferencing with various Export Promotion Councils of the country to assess the ground situation and problems being faced by them in the wake of Covid-19 and subsequent lockdown.

He also assured that efforts will be made to ensure that urgent and important export orders, stuck for any reason, fructify at the earliest.

''The Ministry is working it aggressively so as to get the exports revitalized, looking for export opportunities to expand,'' he added.

Calling upon the exporters to think big, and be ready to harness the opportunity in the post-Covid era, Goyal said that if we improve our quality, build capacity, bring in economies of scale, improve price competitiveness, then we can grow and harness the potential in post-Covid world. 

"My personal belief is that when a country engages with big scale and looks at market dominance - automatically you focus on quality, cost of production comes down, productivity improves, efficiency improves.", he said.

The Minister said that in this after-Covid world, India can shine, being a vibrant and transparent democracy, and working with rule of law, along with a humanitarian approach.

"We are globally responsible citizens and we will ramp up our pharma sector for global needs. We are one family with the whole world. We have a lot of spare pharma products, should we help the world or be greedy. I am proud of the Prime Minister who believes we have a responsibility to the world," he added.

The Minister also called upon them to contribute whole-heartedly towards the PM CARES fund.

The meeting was attended by Office bearers of FIEO, EPCs of Gem & Jewellery, Leather, Electronics & Software, Synthetics & Rayon, Handicrafts, Project exports, Telecom, Textiles, Cashew, Plastics, Sports goods, Woolen, Oilseeds & Produce, Silk, Engineering Exports, Services, Pharma, Chemicals and dyes, Forest produce, Carpet, Allied chemicals.