Commerce ministry starts preparing district export plan to boost outbound shipments

05 Feb 2020 Evaluate

In order to boost India’s outbound shipments, the commerce ministry has started a process to prepare a District Export Plan (DEP) specific to each district in every State/ Union territory (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 plan will also include strategy to enhance logistics and infrastructure at the district level and better utilisation of the Market Access Initiative (MAI) scheme of the ministry for inviting foreign buyers.

Informative material on various incentives provided by the government and states will be disseminated to the industry and other potential exporters. Budgetary support will be provided to make outreach at the district level and prepare this plan. State and UTs will be assisted in preparing an annual Export Ranking Index of different districts to rank each district on its export competitiveness. In order to prepare data, efforts have been made by the ministry 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 include leather, spices, garments, wool, food products, ceramics, cement, silk, carpet, glass items, metal crafts, sports goods, pharmaceuticals, engineering items, auto parts, poultry, vegetables, cut flowers, and scientific instruments.

For the plan, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has been engaging with states/ UTs to initiate its preparation and implementation. The plan will be specific to each district. The DGFT is also developing a portal 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 the plan will include an assessment of a district to identify the current export profile and its further potential in the district.

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