Export Awareness Seminar held in Doon
By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 26 Aug: An Export Awareness Seminar was held today at a local hotel, where Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami addressed the participants. Dhami thanked the attending delegates for participating and he emphasised on the Prime Minister’s vision of creating a USD 400 Billion export economy in the financial year 2022. He also spoke on how Uttarakhand was being shaped towards augmenting this goal. He said that Uttarakhand had progressed in the past few years and exports have increased in the state despite the problems faced by the investors due to Covid-19. He added that to support exports Inland Container Depots were being developed in the state with the help of the Centre. Tourism sector has been given the status of an industry, and post covid the sector boomed and registered record number of 30 lakh tourists visiting Char Dham already by now and more than 3.5 crores of Kanwariyas visiting the state during the shrawan season. Dhami insisted that these were record breaking figures.
The CM stressed that the vision was to promote local products from Uttarakhand. The Prime Minister had inaugurated PM Gati Shakti to improve the planning and implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects. Gati Shakti scheme was a multi-modal connectivity plan with the goal of coordinating infrastructure project planning and execution to reduce logistics costs and time. Regarding this Uttarakhand was preparing a GIS state master plan in which more than 30 departments were working together for sustainable and coordinated planning. The aim was to create investment environment for the industry. The government was also working for Hemp Policy and more focus on herbs from Himalayas could also be taken up. He reiterated that the local products of the state have been doing well in terms of export.
Dhami on this occasion urged the exporters, local bodies and industry associations to come forward and strengthen the Export system, to make Uttarakhand a leading state in exports too. He claimed that Uttarakhand was a land of opportunities and had come a long way as a State and was not limited to tourism but had the potential to attract fresh investment in the services sector, automobiles, agriculture, and information technology.
As an initial address to the attending delegates Secretary Industries, Dr Pankaj Kumar Pandey highlighted that the prime minister has the vision to develop districts into export hub and targets to achieve a USD 400 billion export economy in Financial Year 2022. To support exports government of Uttarakhand has notified the export policy along with the Export Strategy with the objective of strengthening the Exports from the State of Uttarakhand. Uttarakhand has one of the lowest industrial strife rates in the country and has good law and order situation. The State government has taken various initiatives in terms of ease of doing business (EODB). The focus is now on logistics to reduce the cost of manufacturing and freight, as the state is landlocked and does not have access to the waterways. He added that Government of India and the State government are taking active initiatives to reduce travelling time between Delhi NCR and the state of Uttarakhand, which will effectively increase exports from the state. Uttarakhand has taken a bottom-up approach where districts have been developed as export hubs to achieve the Prime Minister’s vision of achieving USD 400 Billion in exports.
Pandey claimed that Uttarakhand has huge potential for exports under the Himadri Brand and products that could be exported from districts have been suggested and that the the export policy focused on 6 Sectors, AgriAllied, Wellness and AYUSH, Pharmaceutical, Tourism and Hospitality, Automobile, Handloom, handicraft, and Education.
SC Nautiyal, Director, Industries, Ashwani Kumar, Regional Chairman, Harsha Bangari Managing Director, Manish Sharma Reginal Head, Tarun Sharma, Chief Financial Officer, Kumar Rahul, Joint Director General of Foreign Trade, Subhash Jha, Branch Manager, DIC Officials particpiated.
