Policy of whittling away unwanted rules will help India become exports powerhouse: EACPM member

15 Jul 2020 Evaluate

A part-time member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EACPM), V Anantha Nageswaran has said that a policy of whittling away unwanted rules, restrictions and regulations will help provide a start for India to emulate China in becoming an exports powerhouse as local businesses are struggling with legislative and compliance burdens. He also said doing such a thing can help get government out of business and gives a medium term target for growth. However, he pitched for making a start towards the country a powerhouse of exports even though a shift to re-shoring amid a nationalistic wave in many markets may make exports difficult.

Nageswaran said ‘emulating China from where we are with the kind of high cost of production and the legislative and compliance burdens that our businesses carry, is not going to happen. That is why Vietnam, Mexico and Bangladesh are getting the industry moving out of China and not India. We are not there yet.’ For the domestic market, he said making goods for the 80 percent of the population depends on the cost at which the goods can be produced and underlined that the compliance burdens imposed by the laws by governments both at the central and the state levels are a worry on this as well.

While terming efforts to push exports as a ‘process’ and that such dominance cannot be achieved in three to six months, he pitched for making a start in that direction. He said in a situation of weak global growth, and everybody trying to re-shore production and becoming very nationalistic, to expect exports to be a growth driver as it was between 2003-08 is a pipe dream. According to him, the situation is about grabbing market share because the pie is not growing. He added that Indian policymakers need to support exports but need to insist on a quid pro quo where the help accorded is tied to certain performance milestones like the way East Asian countries do.

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