Exim policy will have sops for exports sector: Sharma

October 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma Monday said the sharp decline in India's exports over the last few months has been arrested. "The sharp fall in the exports has been arrested.

August 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma on Thursday announced a new foreign policy for the next five years which aims at an export target for 2010-11. He said that the duty refund scheme will continue till December 2010, while income tax holiday for export-oriented units will be there for one more year.

August 23rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government should announce subsidies to the crisis-hit exporters in the forthcoming foreign trade policy to make India's exports sector more competitive, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) has said. "Subsidies need to be extended to Indian exporters by substantially reducing excise and local levies and other export duties," Assocham president Sajjan Jindal said in a paper submitted to Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma.

August 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India must increase its share in the global agricultural exports and for this it should invest in right technology and human resource development, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said here Tuesday. "Agricultural exports comprise only 12 percent of our total exports," Sharma said while delivering the valedictory address at a national workshop on "Achieving Exponential Growth in Agro Exports", organised by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).

August 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The foreign trade policy for the next five years will be announced Aug 27, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said here Tuesday. "We will soon be coming out with our foreign trade policy for the next five years and have had discussions with all the stakeholders," Sharma said while delivering the valedictory address of a national workshop on 'Achieving Exponential Growth in Agro Exports' organised by the Agricultural and Processed Food Export Development Authority here.

July 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government is looking at a relief package to exporters of services, who contribute over 40 percent to India's total export basket, in the foreign trade policy to be announced in August, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said Friday. "The services exports have been substantially contributing towards exports.

July 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's new foreign trade policy will be unveiled next month and will focus on diversifying the country's merchandise exports to untapped markets, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said Saturday. "We will look at diversification," Sharma told reporters here, after a meeting with representatives of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), kicking off the deliberations with stakeholders ahead of formulating the new foreign trade policy.

July 8th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The decline in India's exports due to the global financial crisis has been arrested and a turnaround is now visible, the Rajya Sabha was informed Wednesday. "The downward trend has been arrested and now a turnaround is visible," Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said during question hour.

June 27th, 2009 ADDIS ABABA -The Export and Import (EXIM) Bank of India is in negotiations with Ethiopian officials about the opening of an East African office in Addis Ababa. Board directors of the bank have already decided to open their East African office in Addis Ababa so as to support Indian companies' growing investment in eastern Africa, Indian embassy officials told IANS..

June 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The Export-Import Bank of India is getting a $60 million international trade facility to help support export-focused small and medium enterprises, which have suffered reduced access to finance due to global financial crisis. The trade facility, shared equally by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank group, and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, will improve the Exim Banks ability to provide access to short-term trade funding for smaller businesses, enabling them to carry out export orders.

June 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has said that the ministry will ask the Ministry of Finance for more relief measures for exporters. "We will be making specific recommendations to the fiance ministry, sector specific as well as policy measures to give stimulus to the industries, as I mentioned earlier...I am repeating it, labour intensive sectors, also intensive for exporters and to make Indian products globally competitive, what we are exporting," Sharma said.

June 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma Wednesday expressed concern over the continuing fall in India's exports and said he would push for sector-specific sops to boost the country's external trade in the upcoming national budget. Speaking to reporters after meeting with representatives of leading export promotion organisations, Sharma said the negative trend in exports may to continue for some more time, but that the government will work to minimise the impact of global slowdown.

May 29th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India will maintain its exports at $160 billion for this current fiscal, as steps will be unveiled in the upcoming budget and the trade policy review to help the sector, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said here Friday. He also said that India was ready to ink a host of pacts, including a free trade agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and economic cooperation agreements with South Korea and Nepal.

February 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A leading Indian garment exporters' lobby Thursday demanded sops like duty cuts and interest free loans to help them tide over a crisis that has seen thousands of layoffs. 'We really don't know what step we would take further without any special package for our industry,' said Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) chairman Rahul Vaid.

January 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Indian export sector will lose nearly 10 million jobs by March following cancelled orders and higher transaction costs, a top official of an Indian exporters' forum said here Tuesday. 'This year is already bad for exporters and the next fiscal is only going to be worse.