Exporters are in a jubilant mood over the “landmark” decision made during the G20 Summit to establish an economic corridor linking India with Europe via Middle East.
According to traders, the corridor will significantly reduce the logistics costs and transit time of containers, while proving to be a “game changer” for Ludhiana’s exporters, specially those dealing in garments and textiles.
Local exporters are currently facing fierce competition with the garment industries of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, whose products are priced way lower as compared to the Ludhiana’s industry due to lower cost of production incurred by them.
Harish Dua, executive council member of Apparel Export Promotion Council, said, “The decision to establish India-Middle East-Europe Corridor is a historic one indeed. It will boost the international trade from India to Europe and Middle East. This corridor will offer huge advantage to Ludhiana’s garment and textile industry, which is one of the biggest exporter of India’s products to Europe, but has been going through a tough time lately. We are facing stiff competition in European markets from our neighbours Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, who, on account of their cheaper cost of production, are beating us by offering same products at lower rates.”
He also expressed hope that the Ludhiana’s industry will be able to get an edge over the neighbouring exporters. “Once the multimodal corridor gets ready, the freight charges for shipping to Europe from India will reduce significantly and with these additional savings, garment exporters from the city will be able to drop the selling price of their products and
easily compete with Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi players,” he added.
Garment exporters are also of the view that the corridor will lead to increase in their export sales as delivery time will cut down to almost half due to the corridor.
