Saraf calls for high-tech FDI

India has to boost its high-technology product exports with a new strategy, Sharad Kumar Saraf, President of the Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO), has said in his market outlook for 2020.

Comparatively, India’s high-tech product exports are US$20 billion, whereas Malaysia’s exports are US$90 billion, Singapore US$155 billion, South Korea US$192 billion and China, a whopping, US$652 billion.

While employment intensive sectors should be pushed in exports, the new strategy should focus on technology driven sectors as stated above.

India having R&D advantage and professional manpower at its disposal should concentrate on such sectors where global trade is likely to rise further.

“FDI in high technology could also help in expanding our high technology exports and cornering a greater share in global imports thereby increasing our share to about 2% in the next 3 years,” he said.

Currently, such product exports are much less than 1%.

The global situation is becoming extremely challenging as rising protectionism is leading to uncertainty in global trade which will have adverse impact on it, observed Saraf.

Despite having moderate share in global trade, India’s exports have always followed the trend in global imports. Therefore, when global imports are declining, the country’s exports are also likely to take a hit, he pointed out.

Currently, India’s merchandise exports during April-November 2019 are down by about 1.99%.

“Therefore, we feel our goods exports may touch US$330-340 billion in the current fiscal.

“Fortunately, the order book position of Indian exporters is very encouraging. The less volatility in our currency has also been a positive factor. The liquidity is also improving though we still have a lot of distance to cover,” said Saraf.

FIEO President believes that the infrastructure improvement and initiatives on the logistics front will impart further competitiveness to exports.

If the global situation improves, which is likely in the first half of 2020, India may get 15% growth in exports during the next Financial Year.

FIEO Chief, however, reiterated that Indian exports have to be aligned with changing import patterns of global economy.

He pointed out that 50% of the global imports today is accounted by electrical & electronics products, automobiles, machinery, petroleum products and plastics products.

“Unfortunately, the share of such products in our exports is less than 33% despite having petroleum products accounting for roughly half of it,” said Saraf. fiinews.com