Unlocking key opportunities through strategic reforms

By OEM Update Editorial March 5, 2021 10:59 am IST

India needs to get into cutting edge technology in order to boost its exports. He was speaking at the launch event for the report “Foreign Trade and Investment in India: Unlocking Key Opportunities through Strategic Reforms”, prepared by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), in partnership with the UK Government.

Sectors such as telecom, automobiles, battery storage devices, and solar energy, among others, would benefit from technology exports. These, in his view, would help the country take a quantum leap forward for connecting to global value chains. The reforms that have been implemented post the pandemic would go a long way in facilitating this process, he added.

The report presents a detailed analysis of the policies that affect India’s openness with respect to international trade, including tariff and non-tariff barriers, and FDI. Against the background of the policy changes, the study analyses the trends and patterns of imports and exports and FDI inflows as also identifies on-ground issues being faced by companies in India. It also highlights the need to participate in preferential trade arrangements with key partners, alongside leveraging existing ones, for realizing greater export and FDI and increasing India’s integration into the regional and global value chains, focusing on higher incentives and lower tariffs for enhanced production, rationalising power cost, setting up of certification bodies, and specific trade facilitative measures, among others.

Rhiannon Harries, UK’s Deputy Trade Commissioner, South Asia who joined the launch said that, “Trade and investment sits at the heart of the UK-India relationship. The UK and Indian governments are already working closely on an enhanced trade partnership, which will help deepen trade ties, remove market access barriers and act as a roadmap for a potential future free trade agreement. We are pleased to have partnered with CII on identifying the contributions of trade and investment to economic growth and strategic reforms needed to unlock key opportunities.”