Chairing the second meeting of the reconstituted Board of Trade (BoT) at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal announced the initiation of work on the Trade Connect ePlatform. The e-platform is an intermediary providing facilities to Indian exporters and entrepreneurs to connect with various stakeholders in international trade.
The e-platform is expected to provide facilitation for new and aspiring exporters, information on various regulations to access markets, sectors, and export trends, easy access to benefits under Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), access to sector-specific events, and a facility to address trade-related queries to officials within the Indian Government and associated entities to get expert advice. The platform is likely to be ready in a period of 3 to 4 months.
Describing the BoT meeting as an opportunity to deliberate on key issues, the minister stressed the need to leverage FTAs for India's benefit, encouragement to startups and MSMEs to start exporting, as well as boosting exports from the services sector. Pointing to the need to internationalise goods and services to help improve quality and achieve economies of scale, he emphasised on making exports a people's movement, with the central government, states and industry playing an equal role in accelerating Indian exports.
While the minister highlighted the immense potential in the export of education, tourism and audio-visual services, the BoT meeting focused on reviewing the export performance to achieve the $2 trillion export target by 2030, along with the adoption of the priorities identified in the new Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2023.
During the meeting, presentations were made on a variety of subjects, such as India’s trade performance and state export performance, PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan Multimodal Connectivity, discussion on foreign trade vision, trade facilitation measures undertaken by customs, convergence and expansion of the government e-Marketplace, reforms in the Indian patent system and interventions needed to boost pharmaceutical exports.
