NEW DELHI : Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday, 28th October asked states to adopt a Multi-Modal approach and ensure logistics did not become a burden on exporters. She said the PM Gati Shakti was a beautiful protocol with which a synergy could be brought in.

Delivering the inaugural address after inaugurating the third campus of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade in Kakinada, Sitharaman referred to ‘One District-One Product’ and ‘Vocal for Local’, initiatives, aimed at promoting local products and creating their export markets.

She said the Commerce Ministry was working on getting an export policy that would help the exporters by giving them incentives and promoting many things. “India needs to remove certain taxes impacting exporters“, she said. The Commerce Ministry is working on an export policy that will help the exporters by giving them incentives and promoting many things, she added.

She said the growing cost of electricity and logistics was also affecting the exports. With better roads and ports coming electronic facilitation for the customs operations comingsurely, the logistics element is being addressed little by little. 

State Governments should also spend some time to see that logistics doesn’t become a burden on exporters, Sitharaman said.

The Finance Minister referred to the Prime Minister’s suggestion that States should open export promotion offices in Indian embassies abroad. 

If you have the capacity to tell the kind of things you produce that are international class our embassies are the place where you should be and target the markets there. Some of our States are the size of some European countries. We have the capacity even as a district to capture the market outside, she said.

The ‘One District-One Product’ is an attempt to identify such products in each district that have a natural capacity, organic capacity. 

And ‘Vocal for Local.’ Those are the kind of products that capture international imagination and need to be supported, she added.