In order to boost shipments of chemicals, plastics and allied products sector to push total exports growth rate in India, the commerce ministry is working on an export promotion strategy. For the formulation of the strategy, the sub-group has been constituted to deliberate on the issues of the sector. Recently, the group discussed the constraints hampering the growth of exports of chemicals, plastics and allied sectors.
The exercise is part of the overall initiative of the ministry to work on sectoral export promotion strategy to boost the country's merchandise exports. Exports of organic, inorganic and agro chemicals grew by 38 per cent to $10.7 billion in 2017-18. Likewise, exports of plastics and its products rose to $ 5.3 billion in 2017-18 from $5.24 billion in the previous fiscal.
The main destination for these shipments include the US, China, UAE, Malaysia and Korea. Since 2011-12, India's merchandise exports have been hovering around $300 billion. In the last fiscal, the country's total merchandise exports grew by about 10 percent to $303 billion. Promoting exports helps a country to create jobs, boost manufacturing and earn more foreign exchange.