Chennai: Engineering sector to add to exports of record $330 bn

CHENNAI: Despite the global challenges like protectionism by some countries, India is projected to achieve an all-time record exports of $330 billion in 2018-19 fiscal and it would see the engineering sector emerge as a major contributor, asserted commerce secretary Anup Wadhawan.

 "With trade volume of $ 15 billion per annum, engineering exports account to about 25 per cent of India's total exports, and further contributing to about 5 per cent of the country's GDP. Given the protectionism sweeping major countries of the world and engineering being one of the segments affected by such restrictive measures, the exporting firms should look at innovative methods to enhance competitiveness and take advantage of various market access opportunities," he said while inaugurating the VIII International Engineering Sourcing Show (IESS) underway here on Thursday.

 Averring that this year has been "particularly good for us" he said "India is likely to touch an all-time record and go past our earlier peak which was in 2013-14 at $314 billion and we hope to reach about $325 - 330 billion this year." Addressing global CEOs and trading partners at the IESS-VIII, the annual flagship event of the EEPC India at the Chennai Trade Centre, the Commerce Secretary said the engineering exports have grown significantly in recent years.

 He assured the engineering exporters of looking into how best the government can help for easy and affordable availability of steel. And a similar assurance also came forth from Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu in his video conference message.

 EEPC India chairman Ravi Sehgal said that engineering exports in 2018-19 are expected to be between $80-82 billion.

IESS -VIII, organised by the EEPC India with the support from the Union commerce ministry and the department of heavy industry, has on display engineering products and solutions with around 400 exhibitors, 500 overseas buyers and 10,000 trade visitors participating in the March 14-16 show. The MSME sector, which is the bedrock of the engineering value change and sourcing, will benefit immensely from this show and develop contacts internally as well as globally. Flanders is the focus region for the third time.

 Tamil Nadu is hosting the event for the third time in a row, while Malaysia is the Partner Country of the IESS. India-Malaysia bilateral trade aggregated to $ 14.71 billion in 2017-18, with total exports from India to Malaysia amounting to $ 5.7 billion while its imports from Malaysia stood at around $ 9 billion. The Malaysian delegation is led by Datuk K Talagavathi, Deputy Secretary General, Ministry of International Trade & Industry, Government of Malaysia. She expressed her optimism in enhancing bilateral trade in the years to come.
 
MoU Signed between EEPC India & MARii:  
EEPC India and Malaysia Automotive, Robotics & IoT Institute (MARii) signed a MoU for 3 years to partner with IESS.

 Signing the pact, Dato' Madani Sahari, CEO of MARii said, "our partnership spells out areas we would collaborate - technology adoption and development. With strong automative industry presence in Malaysia and India, our companies can go higher in efficiency and technology. To enter untapped markets, Malaysia and India plan to explore possibilities of entering the Asian and African markets respectively through our mutual partner presence. Our partnership will also extend into exploring the area of human capital development."

AyurTech & Indian Design Council:
EEPC India chairman Ravi Sehgal said that IESS has a novelty of bringing Technology to Ayurveda through the new concept of AyurTech.