Centre eyes $1-trillion merchandise exports

If the country is targeting $1 trn of exports by 2030, there is a likelihood of about $1.5 trn of imports, so do we have enough capacity to cater to $2.5 trn of exim trade. So that is the target, on which the department is working -- Anant Swarup, Addl Secretary, Commerce Dept

New Delhi: The Union Commerce Ministry has initiated an exercise to identify required infrastructure needs, potential sectors, and clusters, which would help the country achieve the $1 trillion merchandise exports target by 2030, a senior government official said on Thursday.

Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce Anant Swarup said that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has been requested to conduct a study in this regard. If the country is targeting $1 trillion of exports by 2030, there is a likelihood of about $1.5 trillion of imports, so “do we have enough capacity” to cater to $2.5 trillion of EXIM (export and import) trade. So that is the target on which the department is working,” he said.

“The ADB is doing a study for us because what is more important is from where the $1 trillion of exports is going to come from; which are those sectors and clusters from where this $1 trillion of exports is going to come from. That is very critical for us. Because unless we know about the clusters, and ports or airports from where this $1 trillion of exports and $1.5 trillion of imports is going to happen, we would not be able to do a baseline study to identify the gaps which exist and then enhance our infrastructure capabilities,” Swarup said.

He was speaking at a CII conference on resilient export logistics for trade and connectivity. India’s merchandise exports dipped by 3.11 per cent to $437 billion in 2023-24. Imports too dipped to $677.24 billion in the last fiscal. He also said that the government is also focusing on ways to push India’s integration into the global supply chains (GVCs) as at present about 70 per cent of the global trade is happening through these chains.

For this, there is a need to increase manufacturing. He added that generally exports and imports move in tandem. China’s exports stood at about $3.5 trillion and imports are at $3.2 trillion. Speaking at the event, Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Santosh Kumar Sarangi said that further infrastructure push is required at ports and airports to increase India’s exports. Saranagi said that to handle $2.5 trillion of exports and imports, India needs to create a lot of infrastructure.

As per rough calculations, “we need to create an infrastructure which will support an additional 2,000 million tonnes of goods movement in the ports. Similarly in the railways, we need to create an infrastructure which will allow railways to carry on an additional 338 million tonnes (MTs) of goods by 2030. Airports also need to create an additional 5 million tonnes of facilities for movement of goods. So these are big challenges but not insurmountable challenges,” he said.