Centre to set up Advisory panel to Boost Exports

New Delhi, March 8 (IANS) The government is to set up an advisory committee to suggest key measures to boost export performance, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said.

At the ECGC Dun and Bradstreet Export Performance awards ceremony on Saturday night in Mumbai, the minister said she is planning "to constitute committee that can suggest thrust areas and key measures which can yield quick results as well as help formulate a long term export strategy," a commerce ministry release here said on Sunday.

"This is a government that is fully willing to hear, fully willing to listen and fully willing to act," she added.

Emphasisng that exports play a key role in ensuring the success of the Make in India initiative, the minister assured the gathering that the government's "ease of doing business" measures will be extended to the export sector as well.

According to the ministry, Sitharaman said Indian exporters' access to markets abroad is restricted because of the protectionist measures of countries.

The e-biz portal launched recently by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was a great boon for the manufacturers and exporters, she added.

Indian software major TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) bagged the best overall exporter award in the large companies category, while Pune-based Serum Institute of India won the best manufacturer exporter award.

On the eve of the International Women's Day on Sunday, Sitharaman expressed special appreciation for the Bengaluru-based Himatsingka Seide in which women constitute 90 percent of the employees, the statement said.