New Delhi, Feb 16 (KNN) Commerce & Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu launched a new online “Anytime-Anywhere” export awareness course to train, mentor and hand-hold potential exporters so as to help them to tap international trade opportunities.

The export awareness course was launched in a meeting of the Board of Trade (BOT), chaired by Minister for Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu at VigyanBhawan, here.

The meeting was attended by Commerce Secretary, Secretary DPIIT, DGFT, Secretaries and other senior officials of key line ministries including, Finance and Agriculture, all major trade and industry bodies, Export Promotion Councils and industrialists.

This Online Course has been funded under the ‘Niryat Bandhu’ scheme of Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) and is in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi.

On successful completion, a Certificate in Export Import Management under Niryat Bandhu Scheme will be awarded to participants.

In another e-initiative, Commerce Minister also launched a Mobile App of DGFT. Exporters can now log their grievances, apply for various licenses, view their status using this app, besides accessing information about latest trade notices, circulars, Foreign Trade Policy and trade fairs.

In his address, Commerce Secretary, Dr. Anup Wadhawan mentioned that India’s exports have faced a very challenging period in recent years, on account of developments arising from the global financial crisis of 2008-09, which accentuated after 2013-14, when the world economy, including China experienced a major trade slowdown.

Thus, after achieving a turnaround from the initial shock and reaching a peak export figure of US$ 314.4 billion in 2013-14, our exports came under immense pressure again in the post 2013-14 period due to accentuation of the global economic / financial crisis in the second phase when countries like China also got adversely affected, he added.

However, he said since then concerted efforts through improved logistics, trade facilitation, increased digitization to reduce human interface and increase transparency, implementation of GST, capacity building through skilling etc., the government has been able to arrest the downturn affecting India.

As a result, barring a few stray months, our merchandise exports have been growing on a secular basis since 2016-17 for almost three years and are likely to reach a new peak in 2018-19.

He also highlighted the detailed export promotion strategy, which has been prepared by Department of Commerce and is under implementation in consultation with and with the support of wide-ranging stakeholders, including Export Promotion Councils, exporters and financial institutions

Director General Foreign Trade (DGFT), Alok Chaturvedi, made a detailed presentation explaining the present export scenario and various initiatives taken.

He emphasized that Government is committed to end to end IT enablement and make all processes completely paperless.

In this regard, Department of Commerce has approved a project for the revamp of entire IT system of DGFT.

The representatives of industry, while welcoming steps taken by the Government, expressed concerns about decreasing flow of credit to export sector, retrospective effect of pre import conditions, delays in refund of Input Tax Credit, withdrawal of GSP benefits by US, exports to Iran and OFAC countries, availability of incentives for exports to neighboring countries, etc.

The issues raised by the trade were addressed by the senior officials and will be taken up in the forthcoming meeting of Committee of Exports and GST council.