As part of the multi-pronged strategy to revamp and strengthen the Department of Commerce and make it ‘future-ready’, the nodal department for trade will have a coherent trade promotion strategy with clear targets and execution accountabilities, the government said in a release on Sunday.
In order to create an enabling ecosystem to achieve USD 2 Trillion exports by 2027, the Department of Commerce will have an “agile setup responsive to market opportunities and exporter needs via interlinkages across bodies.” Besides, there will also be synergized branding for India across all domains highlighting clear priority areas, said the release.
A dedicated ‘Trade Promotion Body’ to drive overall promotion strategy, export targets, and execution is proposed to be set up.
Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal during the review meeting on Sunday emphasized on constant monitoring of exports to ensure the achievement of targets on time. He further highlighted the need for the revamping of the department in view of several emerging opportunities in global trade owing to shifts in global trade dynamics like rapid growth of services and disruptive potential of climate change.
Goyal also called for the consistent strengthening of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) and other organizations and bodies that promote investment and trade.
The revamped department would have a strengthened negotiation ecosystem with the right expertise and robust end-to-end processes with clearly defined focus areas and institutions. “It aspires to achieve an optimal mix of talent with specialists and generalists sourced from across private and government sectors,” said the release. A project was undertaken to design a future-ready Department of Commerce. Certain key recommendations were made by the project, it added.
A stronger active role for missions in Trade Promotion for market intel leads generation & localized research has been envisaged.
Besides strengthening negotiations via multi-skilled negotiation teams and separation between bilateral and WTO negotiations has been envisioned, said the release.
Setting up of a ‘Trade Remedies Review Committee’ Including Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Finance and line ministries is also proposed for transparency in investigations outcomes.
Centralization and digitization of trade facilitation processes have been recommended to drive ease of compliance and scheme administration.
Rehauling data and analytics ecosystem via centralized data management and embedded analytics capabilities in the Department of Commerce has been proposed. A concerted push to strengthen Brand India is in the works.
Source : https://www.livemint.com/news/india/department-of-commerce-set-for-a-revamp-11645368720877.html