The Department of Commerce will soon open ten offices in Indian missions abroad for accelerating export promotion activities.

Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said this while reviewing the sectoral export promotion plans prepared by Ministries and Departments in New Delhi yesterday.

According to an official release, Mr Prabhu said a conference of Heads of Indian missions has been scheduled by the end of this month in which trade promotion measures will be discussed.

The Minister stressed on branding of Indian products and export credit as important focus areas for export promotion.

He also said that efforts should be made for getting priority sector lending status for export credit and directed the logistics division of the Ministry to work upon measures like bulk cargo transportation to reduce freight costs.

The Minister suggested that each Ministry and Department should set targets for increasing exports of their product and product groups during the current fiscal.

The Minister also emphasised that exports are a national priority and an integrated approach is required to promote exports as a joint mission.

Commerce Secretary, Rita Teaotia said that although exports have grown in the past year, a quantum jump is required. She also emphasized that branding is a major issue cutting across all sectors and Brand Equity Foundation is formulating a proposal to support line Ministries for branding export products.

Director General Foreign Trade, Alok Chaturvedi informed the participants that Department of Commerce is preparing a ‘100 Billion Additional Export Strategy’ which will be released shortly.