Sops likely to be on cards for labour-intensive sectors

Labour-intensive sectors in India may soon receive some additional sops from the government in view of the fact that some of them continue to grapple with lower export figures despite the visible signs of global recovery.

Speaking on the sidelines of the conclave on India-Africa Project Partnership, commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma stated, "The issue of extending financial incentives for some of the labour-intensive sectors, which mostly comprise SMEs, have been taken up with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. We are hopeful that some more sops will be extended to these sectors."

The sixth conclave revolving around India-Africa Project partnership is being jointly hosted by the Commerce and External Affairs Ministries, the Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Mr Sharma has also expressed optimism that India's exports will grow two-fold by 2014, stating that exports will post an incremental surge of 20-25% per annum.

"The target of doubling the country's export figures over 2008-09 by 2014 can be achieved if adequate support is extended to SMEs engaged in overseas trade as they contribute significantly towards the export sector's growth," said P Jain, proprietor of Jain Tea Company, a small-sized tea exporting unit in Kolkata.

Besides being confident about the prospects of achieving two-fold growth, Mr Sharma also revealed that the government's long-standing goal is to double the country's market share of merchandise as well as services trade in percentage terms.

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