India is embarking on a major initiative to upgrade its export infrastructure in order to achieve an ambitious target of USD 1 trillion in merchandise exports by 2030.
The commerce ministry, in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), has kickstarted an exercise to identify and estimate the investments required across various modes of transportation, reported FE.
The key areas targeted for infrastructure augmentation include railways, roads, ports, and airports to facilitate the seamless movement of goods meant for exports.
According to Santosh Sarangi, Director General of Foreign Trade, India needs to create additional capacity to handle 2,000 million tonnes of goods at ports, 338 million tonnes through railways, and 5 million tonnes via airports by 2030.
“These are big challenges but not insurmountable,” Sarangi stated, underscoring the government’s commitment to overcoming logistical hurdles.
Anant Swarup, Additional Secretary, department of commerce, highlighted that when goods exports reach USD 1 trillion, imports are expected to be around USD 1.5 trillion.
Thus, the country must develop the capacity to handle the movement of USD 2.5 trillion worth of goods.
The ongoing study will also identify the sectors and clusters from where the additional USD 560 billion in exports, over and above the current levels, will originate in the next six years.
In the last financial year, India’s merchandise exports stood at USD 437.06 billion, while imports were at USD 677.24 billion.
Swarup emphasised the importance of pinpointing the clusters, ports, and airports that will drive the USD 1 trillion in exports and USD 1.5 trillion in imports.
“Unless we know about these, we would not be able to do a baseline study to identify the gaps which exist and then enhance our infrastructure capabilities,” he said.
Furthermore, the government is focused on enhancing India’s integration into global supply chains, as 70 per cent of global trade currently happens through these chains.