The government will come out with a strategy document on increasing the share of exports to 20 per cent of the GDP, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said today. In an interaction with export promotion councils in Kolkata, he asked the industry to come up with a detailed plan to push the country's exports. "He (Prabhu) informed that government is also coming up with strategy document to increase export to 20 per cent of GDP.
For this he requested industry to come up with proper business plan to increase exports," the commerce ministry said in a tweet. According to Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO), the current share of exports in GDP is 18 to 19 per cent. In his budget speech last week, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that India's exports are likely to expand by about 15 per cent in the current fiscal, ending March 31. "Indian economy is now USD 2.5 trillion - seventh largest in the world. India is expected to become the fifth largest economy very soon," he had said. The country's merchandise shipments rose 12.36 per cent to USD 27.03 billion in December 2017. Cumulatively, exports during the April-December period of 2017-18 grew by 12.05 per cent to USD 223.512 billion. Total exports value was recorded at USD 274.64 billion in 2016-17, up from USD 262.29 billion in the preceding year.
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