Govt to set up e-comm hubs to promote exports

The government on Tuesday announced setting up of hubs to promote exports through e-commerce medium in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode and initially 10-15 hubs will be established.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that these hubs, under a seamless regulatory and logistic framework, will facilitate trade and export-related services under one roof.

"To enable MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) and traditional artisans to sell their products in international markets, e-commerce export hubs will be set up in PPP mode," she said.

Commenting on the announcement, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said these hubs will have facilities like expedited customs clearances and will be located near major cargo centres.

"We will start with 10-15 hubs, (after that) judge the interest of trade, business and exporters.

"If we get good encouragement, we will scale them up. We can identify (these hubs) in consultation with the industry. Industry has to come forward," the minister told reporters.

The commerce ministry is working on developing a regulatory framework for these hubs and is expected to be ready by September.

At present, India's exports through this medium are only about $5 billion compared to China's $300 billion, annually. There is a potential to take it to $50-100 billion in the coming years.

Through these hubs, small producers will be facilitated to sell to aggregators and then that aggregator will find markets to sell.

Export products which hold huge potential through this medium include jewellery, apparel, handicrafts and ODOP (one district one product) goods.

In such hubs, export clearances can be facilitated.

Besides, it can also have warehousing facilities, customs clearance, returns processing, labelling, testing and repackaging.

Federation of Indian Export Organisations Director General Ajay Sahai has earlier stated that it will be a kind of bonded zone which will facilitate exports and imports of e-commerce cargo and to a large extent address the problem of re-imports because in e-commerce, about 25 per cent of goods are re-imported.

Last year, the cross-border e-commerce trade was about $800 billion and is estimated to reach $2 trillion by 2030.

A report by economic think tank GTRI India's e-commerce exports have the potential to reach $350 billion by 2030, but banking issues hinder growth and increase operational costs.

India has set a target of $1 trillion of merchandise exports by 2030 and cross-border e-commerce trade has been identified as one of the mediums to meet this aim.

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