Vikramaditya Ugra, General Manager, Exim Bank, has emphasised the need for horizontal and vertical diversification of exports to tap Kerala’s $6-billion export potential.
The State’s economic growth has been consistently higher than the all-India rate. While trade has clearly emerged an agent of growth, there remains substantial potential for further enhancing exports from the State. However, a policy support along with entrepreneurial zeal will be crucial for this purpose, he said at a seminar on the theme ‘Exports from Kerala: Focus on select sector’, organised by Exim Bank, here on Wednesday.
Pullela Nageswara Rao, Chief Commissioner of Central Tax, Central Excise & Customs, Thiruvananthapuram zone, pointed out that the State has emerged a growth driver for the country with its abundant agricultural resources, skilled human resources and favourable policy environment.
Ambrish Bhandari, Deputy General Manager and Regional Head at Exim Bank’s Chennai Regional Office, reiterated the need for Kerala to focus on vertical diversification in technology areas such as electronics, electrical equipment and engineering goods, which shall make exports from the State less vulnerable to competition from low-cost suppliers.
Exim Bank also released a working paper titled ‘Indian Tourism Industry: Exploring Opportunities for Enhancing Growth’.
According to the study, India is expected to be among the top ten fastest growing destinations for leisure-travel spending during the 2016-26 period. The paper has recommended a wide range of strategies for further growth in the sector.
These include rationalisation of taxation rates, incentives at the State level for FDI in the tourism sector, infrastructure status to hotel projects above ₹25 crore, roadshows in identified opportunity markets of the US, Australia, Brazil, Thailand, Poland, Israel and Nigeria, and fiscal incentives to encourage international accreditation of hospitals.
Additionally, Kerala may look at encouraging facilitators in medical tourism, improving accessibility of public buildings and transport, launching innovative schemes for travel insurance, and developing food tourism projects.
The programme was attended by industry stakeholders from Kerala, and had speakers from government, industry associations, commodity boards, FIEO, DGFT, and ECGC.