MUMBAI : The Centre is working to help small and medium enterprises tide over the sharp downtrend in global demand and boost exports from the Country.
Nirmala Sitharaman said exports, especially of merchandise goods, have fallen sharply in the last 11 months and the Government has announced special incentives for exporters and is open for more support, if need be, to reverse the declining export trend.
“End of the day, we should also understand that demand in the global markets is depressed and there is no pick up in last 10 months. We are hopeful the tide will change soon,” she said.
Drawing the industry’s attention on how the Government is delivering on its promises, Sitharaman said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to Russia last December, promised Russian President Vladimir Putin that a centre would be created to facilitate diamond miners to sell their roughs in India.
Andrey Polyako, Vice-President, Alrosa, said the company has signed an agreement with 12 Indian companies to supply roughs. Urging the Centre to clear bottlenecks on taxation and finance to small enterprises, Praveenshankar Pandya, President, GJEPC, said once the operations of the SNZ in Mumbai are fine-tuned, GJEPC would set up a gem bourse for diamond at Surat in Gujarat and another one for coloured gemstones at Jaipur in Rajasthan.
Source: dailyshippingtimes.com
