Piyush Goyal announces commencement of work on trade connect ePlatform

New Delhi [India], January 16 : Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday chaired the second meeting of the reconstituted Board of Trade held at Bharat Mandapam, here in the national capital.
Minister Goyal announced the initiation of work on Trade Connect ePlatform, an intermediary platform providing the facility to connect Indian exporters and entrepreneurs with various stakeholders in international trade will commence shortly.
The ePlatform is expected to provide facilitation for new and aspiring exporters, information on various regulations to access markets, sectors, export trends, easy access of benefits under Free Trade Agreements, access to sector-specific events along with a facility to address trade-related queries to officials in Government of India and associated entities to get expert advice.
The platform is likely to be ready in a 3-4 months' time period.
In his opening remarks, Minister Goyal said that the Board of Trade meeting is an opportunity to deliberate on the key issues including how to leverage the FTAs for the benefit, how to encourage the Startups/MSMEs to go beyond the borders and start exporting, boosting exports also from the services sector which remains a key driver of export growth from the country.
Goyal stressed on the need to internationalise the goods and services to help in improving the quality of the products and also to have economies of scale. He further emphasied on making exports a people's movement with the States, Centre and the Industry, all playing an equal role in accelerating Indian exports.
The Board of Trade meeting focused on reviewing the export performance to achieve the $2 trillion export target for year 2030, the priorities identified in the new Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2023 and the strategies and measures to be adopted in order to take forward the export growth.
The reconstituted Board of Trade provides an opportunity to have regular discussions and consultations with trade and industry and advises the Government on policy measures connected with the Foreign Trade Policy in order to achieve the objectives of boosting India's trade.
It provides a platform to the State governments and UTs for sharing State-oriented perspectives on exports.
During the Board of Trade meeting, presentations were made on a variety of subjects such as India's Import/ Export Performance and State export performance, PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan Multimodal Connectivity, Leveraging FTAs for boosting export growth, discussion on foreign trade vision, trade facilitation measures undertaken by customs, Convergence and expansion of Government e-Marketplace, reforms in Indian patent system, Intervention to boost Pharma exports.
The meeting was attended by various State Ministers and other senior officials of key line ministries and States, all major trade and industry bodies, Export Promotion Councils and industry associations.