Commerce Ministry initiates process to prepare district export plan

New Delhi, Feb 5 (KNN) The Ministry of Commerce and Industry through Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has initiated a process to prepare and implement of a District Export Plan (DEP) specific to each district in every State/ UT through an institutional structure at the district level.

''The plan will include the support required by the local industry in boosting their manufacturing and exports with impetus on supporting the industry from the production stage to the exporting stage,'' the Ministry said.

The institutional structure set up at the district level for implementation of the District Export Plan will be headed by the Chief/ District Development Officer with other relevant District Level Officers as members.

"Informative material on various incentives provided by the government and states will be disseminated to the industry and other potential exporters," the Ministry added.

The DEP will also include strategy to enhance logistics and infrastructure at the district level and better utilization of the Market Access Initiative (MAI) Scheme of the Department of Commerce for inviting foreign buyers under reverse buyer-seller meets at the district level, suitably gathering district level commodity and services exports data including through GSTN and Customs ICEGATE System and publishing District Export Matrix for each district on a quarterly basis by the State Government.

''Relevant budgetary support to the DGFT RAs will be provided to make outreach at district level and prepare DEP,'' the Ministry said further.

State/UTs government will be assisted in preparing an annual “Export Ranking Index” of different districts in a particular State/ UT to rank each district on its export competitiveness.

In order to prepare a district wise export data efforts have been made by DGFT and DGCI&S to look into the feasibility of preparing district level export data from the existing set up.

The products identified, which has export potential, from the 750 districts in the country are leather articles, sand and stone articles, spices, garments, wool, food products, ceramics, cement, silk, carpet, glass items, metal crafts, sports goods, pharmaceuticals, engineering goods, auto parts, poultry products, vegetables, cut flowers, forest produce, bamboo products and scientific instruments.

The DGFT is also developing a portal that may be accessed on the DGFT website to enable the States to upload all information related to the products with export potential of every district.

The preliminary exercise for the preparation of a DEP will include an assessment of a district to identify the current export profile and its further potential in the district.

The ministry has mandated the Regional Authorities (RAs) of DGFT to work with the State Governments and district level officers including GM-DIC, Lead Bank Managers to promote each district as an export hub.

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