By: Ibni Maqbool
Srinagar: In a significant move to implement the Government of India’s ambitious programme of developing districts as export hubs, the Director General of Foreign Trade’s Regional Authorities have prepared district export action plans for 15 districts in Jammu & Kashmir.
Documents in possession of The Precious Kashmir reveal that district export action plans have been prepared by DGFT for six districts in Jammu and nine in Kashmir.
The district export action plans involve identification of products (goods and services) with export potential in the district. It also includes institutional responsibilities, specifics of policy, regulatory and operational reform, and infrastructure/utilities/logistics interventions required across the entire chain from producer/farm to the export destination.
According to documents, the District Level Export Promotion Committee(DLEPC) meetings have been conducted in all 20 districts for identification of products. “DLEPC (meetings) for finalizing the district export action plan to be held,” the documents state.
In the first phase of scheme, product/services with export potential in each district are to be identified and institutional mechanisms in the form of state export promotion committees (SEPC) and district export promotion committees (DEPCs) have to be created to provide support for export promotion and to address the bottlenecks for export growth in the districts.
According to documents, export cell has been created within the Jammu & Kashmir Trade Promotion Organisation (JKTPO) for identification of hallmark products, updating export databases, coordination with export promotion councils and consultation with stakeholders.
Then document also reveals that focus products have been identified for hallmarking while identification of export cluster and service export potential will be undertaken.
The “One District One Product” (ODOP) initiative is operationally merged with ‘districts as export hub’ initiative being implemented by DGFT, Department of Commerce, with Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) as a major stakeholder.
