Kamal Nath convenes meeting of Board of Trade in Mumbai
FIRST EVER BOT MEETING OUTSIDE DELHI
Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, has convened a meeting of the Board of Trade in Mumbai on 13th January, 2006. This will be the first ever meeting of the Board of Trade outside Delhi.
The Board of Trade is a forum for continuous dialogue between Government and the trade and industry and the Board, inter-alia, advises the government on policy measures connected with India’s foreign trade in order to achieve the objective of boosting the country’s exports, including advising the government on preparation and implementation of short term as well as long term strategies for enhancing exports in the light of emerging national and international trade scenarios.
An important item on the Agenda of the forthcoming meeting would be the presentation by select Working Groups and Study Groups which were set up sometime ago on specified areas of Indian exports. Five Working Groups were set up on “evaluation of different export Promotion Schemes”; “trade facilitation”; “manufacturing sector”; “identifying specific sectors and strategies having comparative advantage” and on SEZs and EOUs. Besides this, there were four sectoral Study Groups on textiles; pharmaceuticals; chemicals & allied sectors; and on the impact of Regional Trade Agreements RTAs) and Free trade Areas (FTAs) on Indian industry and exports.
The Board of Trade was revamped in pursuance of the announcement made by Shri Kamal Nath as part of the Foreign Trade Policy (2004-09) and given a clear and dynamic role. The Minister had also announced that an eminent person or expert on trade policy would be the Chairman of the Board of Trade as against the earlier practice of having the Commerce Minister as Chairman. Accordingly, the Board of Trade, headed by Dr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group was reconstituted with 39-members, including both non-official and official members.
The non official members of the Board of Trade are: Mr. Ishaat Hussain, Tata Sons; Mr. Baba Kalyani, Bharat Forge; Mr. Malvinder Singh, Ranbaxy; Mr. Irfan Allana, Chairman, Allana Sons; Mr. Jagdish Khattar, Managing Director, Maruti Udyog; Mr. Ravi Raheja, President Shoppers Stop Ltd. ; Mr. Prashant Ruia, ESSAR Group; Mr. A.C. Muthiah, SPIC; Mr. Harsh Neotia, Gujarat Ambuja; Mr. Rana Kapoor, Yes Bank; Mr. Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar, Economist; President, CII; President, FICCI; President, FIEO; President, ASSOCHAM; Chairman, NASSCOM; Chairmen of Gems & Jewellery EPC; Apparel Export Promotion Council; Texprocil; SRTEPC; Export Promotion Council for Handicraft (EPCH); Seafood Exporters Association of India; Council for Leather Exports; Chemexcil; Pharmexcil; CAPEXIL; Electronic & Software Council; Export Promotion Council for EOUs; Engineering Export promotion council
The official members of the Board of Trade are: Secretary, Department of Commerce; Secretary, Department of Revenue; Secretary (ER), Ministry of External Affairs; Secretary, Ministry of Textiles; Chairmen of India Trade Promotion Organization, Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC); Managing Director, EXIM Bank; Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India; Secretary, Shipping; and the Director General of Foreign Trade, as Member Secretary of the Board.
SBNSD/MS
(Release ID :14873)