Highlighting the importance of services sector in improving the condition of exports, the Commerce & Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu has said that the government is working on a strategy to boost share of services in total exports from the country. He said that “In my opinion services should be one of the most critical drivers of the growing economy and must be brought to the forefront”.
The Minister addressing a meeting on the services sector organised by industry body CII, said that the country needs to identify new services which have tremendous export potential such as healthcare and financial services and within that develop new products which could be exported. He also suggested that sectors such as IT should look at developing newer markets such as Latin America as markets like the US and Europe were becoming saturated.
The services sector contributes 60 per cent of India’s GDP, 30 per cent of India’s exports and just 30 per cent of India’s jobs. Seprately the minister briefing on the outcome of the WTO’s recently held Buenos Aires meeting, said that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) process needs to be strengthened and taken forward as India has a strategic interest in the functioning of the multilateral trade system.