NEW DELHI (PTI): India plans to export five lakh tons of sugar in the current year and also proposes to boost exports of cement and steel, the commerce minister Pranab Mukherjee said here Feb.18.
Assistance will be provided to the states to create the necessary infrastructure including export processing zones to reverse the “none too happy” export performance in the current year, he said.
The country needs to achieve 13% annual export growth in the coming years to tide over the balance of payment crisis, he said at a Press conference here.
The liberalization of the economy till date has yielded four billion dollars’ worth of foreign investment, he said, adding that exports held the key to the success of the economic reforms.
Referring to the Dunkel proposals for reforming world trade, Mukherjee said he would discuss the implications with representatives of all other political parties before finalizing the government stand on it.
The commerce minister asserted that the country’s interest would be protected. On patent laws, he said if the government accepted the Dunkel dratt; the Indian patent laws would have to be modified.
On whether the draft in the present form was acceptable to India, he said the government was yet to take a final view on it. Besides, without knowing the response of the Clinton administration in the United States it would be difficult to say anything, he said.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 26, 1993
