Uttarakhand moots export promotion council

"When the RBI is showing so much efforts, it becomes the endeavour of the state government to set up an export promotion council," said Sudhir Nautiyal, additional director industries in the Uttarakhand government.

"Let the assembly elections in the state be over, we will soon hold discussions for setting up such export council," Nautiyal said yesterday after the RBI convened a meeting of the sub-committee of the state level bankers committee (SLBC) for the promotion of exports in the hill state.

The RBI has asked the banks to appoint nodal officers for boosting export credit and promote exports. "Under the new policy of RBI, all the banks are required to appoint nodal officers who can facilitate exports and related financial matters," said Anup Kumar, RBI?s Deputy General Manager (Foreign Exchange Department), who also chaired the meeting. The sub-committee also took the suggestion from the exporters.

Pankaj Gupta, President of the Indian Association of Uttarakhand (IAU), an apex body of the SMEs in the state, suggested interest rates for the MSME sector to be capped at 7 per cent. Gupta also suggested that 3 per cent interest subvention to be extended to labour-intensive export sector and MSME.

With a view to promote exports, Kumar stressed the need for compiling correct data of exporters in Uttarakhand where he said there was a tremendous scope for exports. "Unless there is correct data, we cannot know which sector is facing what kind of problem," he said.

The main purpose of the meeting, Kumar said, was to understand the problems faced by exporters and provide solutions. "We want to understand the problems of the exporters so that we can come out with the solutions." He also called for identifying exports clusters in the state which he said would help in boosting exports.