Incumbent on Indians to address the world’s expectations, says Goyal
India is pursuing Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with United Kingdom and European Union very seriously while it has reservations on RCEP due to weak ‘rules of origin’ and many participating economies not being transparent market economies, Dr. S Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs told a Plenary Session on “Shaping a New India for Global Role” of the CII Annual Meeting 2021.
Quoting current EU president Ursula Von Trayer, that ‘liberalised trade should not come at the cost of fair trade’, Dr Jaishankar said, “We must keep the interests of MSMEs in mind and ensure that they receive a level playing field in domestic market (under Free Trade Agreement regime).
The meeting, held virtually 11-12 Aug 2021, was attended by industrialists and market stakeholders and stalwarts.
The world is looking at India to play a much bigger role and to find the right balance between various trading nations in terms of supply chain and markets, added Minister of Commerce and Industries Piyush Goyal.
And as such, “it is incumbent upon all of us that we address what is desired from us”, he stressed at the Plenary Session on “Synergy Between the Government and Businesses for Sustainable Growth” of the meeting on 12 Aug 2021.
“The mantra of Reform, Perform and Transform has been the Government’s guiding light and has been inculcated in every action of the government,” said Goyal.
The Government has been working towards further improvements in the business processes and as a result the Government will be soon be launching a genuine single window system in partnership with the industry, he told CII delegates of industry captains, stalwarts and stakeholders.
Highlighting the role played being by CII, the Minister said, “CII has been the bridge between the government and so many other stakeholders- industry, services, civil society and even common man”.
Goyal urged CII for ideas, imaginations, inspirations, which country is looking for and with industry partnership we can make India@75 a hub of the future and ideas, and coined a new term IDEAS – where I stands for investment; D stands for demand which India has to offer; E for exports and employment generation; A for aspirations of 1.3 billion population for better future; and S for startups.
“As India and Indians look at the world as a global workplace, international mobility and migration becomes very important,” Dr. S Jaishankar pointed out, assuring, “It is one of my top priorities to ensure that Indians travelling abroad face least possible restrictions with regards to the type of vaccination they have received.”
The Minister pointed out that ‘vaccine certificates’ rather than type of vaccine received should be the criteria for enabling overseas travel and that India is taking up this issue bilaterally with multiple countries.
On India’s leadership role during the pandemic, the Minister highlighted that while many countries competed over essential medical supplies, India stood out as being decisive and effective, providing essential food, medicines, equipment and vaccine to various countries. India supplied vaccine to many smaller countries who may not have got the necessary supplies otherwise.
“For this, countries across the globe appreciated our efforts and reciprocated when India faced the crisis during the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic,” said Dr Jaishankar. #exports #manufacturing #investment #technologies /fiinews.com
