Union Minister Piyush Goyal-headed Department of Commerce on Sunday said it is working to rejig the commerce department as part of efforts to boost exports to $2 trillion by 2027.
The Ministry of Commerce & Industry in a statement said in order to design a future-ready Department of Commerce. Proposed changes include a dedicated ‘Trade Promotion Body’ to drive overall promotion strategy, export targets and execution; a stronger active role for missions in Trade Promotion for market intel, leads generation & localised research; strengthening negotiations via multi-skilled negotiation teams and separation between bilateral and WTO negotiations.
Another important proposal includes setting up a ‘Trade Remedies Review Committee’ including Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Finance and line ministries for transparency in investigations outcomes. The ministry further said centralisation and digitisation of trade facilitation processes have also been recommended to drive ease of compliance and scheme administration. Rehauling data and analytics ecosystem via centralized data management and embedded analytics capabilities in the Department of Commerce has been proposed.
Emphasis will also be laid on strengthening of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) and other organisations and bodies that promote investment and trade.
Goyal said constant monitoring of exports was crucial in ensuring the achievement of targets on time.
“It may be noted that there are several emerging opportunities in global trade owing to shifts in global trade dynamics like rapid growth of services and disruptive potential of climate change. There is thus an imminent need to proactively develop exports and build India’s brand in global trade,” the ministry statement added.
The revamping of the Commerce Department is aimed at further building on its strategic direction and aspirations for the next decade. There is also a need for scaling up and re-engineering the operation model with enhanced ‘new-age’ capabilities and to move from inherent traditional roles to new roles. The revamped Department to have a more coherent trade promotion strategy with clear targets and execution accountabilities. There will be a Strengthened negotiation ecosystem with right expertise and robust end-to-end processes with clearly defined focus areas and institutions. It aspires to achieve an optimal mix of talent with specialists and generalists sourced from across private and government sectors. The Department will have an agile setup responsive to market opportunities and exporter needs via interlinkages across bodies. There will also be synergized branding for India across all domains highlighting clear priority areas.
