COMMENTARY
INTERVIEW
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Maharashtra ties up with WTC to boost exports

The white-collared executives, perched comfortably in their air-conditioned kiosks in the 31-storey World Trade Centre in south Bombay have begun descending from their ivory towers and fan out into the interior of Maharashtra. They will be visiting visiting semi-urban and rural areas to teach exporters and small-scale entrepreneurs a lesson or two in hard sell and export promotions, according to a scheme drawn up the the state government.

The Maharashtra government, aiming to increase international trade, has opened an Export Promotion Centre in cooperation with private industrialists and the Union government. The EPC is affiliated to the World Trade Centres Association, which has 300 trade centres across 97 countries worldwide.

With its global links, the World Trade Centre in Bombay will help local exporters identify potential importers in the international markets for their products, and detailed programmes for the same have already been drawn up. The World Trade Centre's infrastructural facilities is seen as being able to provide a boost to India's exports.

The move will also benefit WTC officials who, so far, were unable to lure the industrialists and exporters in Bombay, India's financial capital, to the WTC building. Only a handful of exporters had and are availing of the infrastructural facilities available at the WTC.

However, on the state commerce ministry's initiative, the state government recently passed an order that the WTC officials should allow vineyard owners and small-scale entrepreneurs the use of the facilities at WTC. Farmers from Pune, Nasik, Aurangabad, Nagpur and Thane are likely to benefit by this exercise.

World Trade Centre Manager Bose Nair has been assigned the task of arranging the programs to guide farmers and industrialists in coordination with banks and local business organisations. The first such Export Management Training Programme, organised by the Maharashtra Bank, was held in Solapur, south Maharashtra, on November 29, The training centre provided information about the government’s export policy, export-related opportunities in the international markets, and export finance and insurance.

WTC Research and Development Department Managing Director J P Ghate and Marketing Manager Anil Advani said that the Centre prepares a list potential international markets where Indian exporters could sell their products after closely studying the international trade markets and goods manufactured locally. Through research-based studies, a report titled 'Agricultural Industrial Products and the European Markets' has been prepared.

At present, the WTC is busy identifying export markets for goods produced in Maharashtra. Nearly 100-150 students have enrolled for the six-month course. The four thousand books, 200 national and international dailies and the tariff rates in the library will help the farmers and vineyard owners in the state.

Also, a data bank providing information about three million trades carried out from the chief Indian ports from 1991, is available on a computer at the click of a mouse. Priced at Re 1, these lists will help exporters assess the demand and price range for the product in international markets.

The on-line facility available on computers will help exporters evaluate the present scenario in international markets. The centres’s program also provides temporary cabins to entrepreneurs to organise export-related exhibitions and seminars.

Such moves are sure to help foreign importers understand Indian products and vice versa. As a result, the World Trade Centre is truly proving to be a haven for the local exporters.

Compiled and translated from the Marathi media by Prasanna Zore