Chapter 3 - Developing Districts as Export Hubs - Foreign Trade Policy, 2023

Chapter 3 Developing Districts as Export Hubs 3.0 Objective To galvanise districts of the country to become export hubs by identifying products and services with export potential in the district, addressing bottlenecks for exporting these products/services, supporting local exporters/ manufacturers to scale and find potential buyers outside India with the aim of promoting exports, manufacturing services industry in the District. This is intended to bring greater level of awareness and commitment regarding exports at the district level, build capacity to create new exporters and identify new markets for the focused products and services. This will also empower MSMEs, farmers and small scale industries to get benefit of export opportunities in the overseas markets. This decentralised and focused approach will shift the focus on district led export growth for self-sufficiency and self- reliance by providing global platform to products and services from the districts. 3.1 District Export Promotion Committees - Institutional Mechanism at District Level Every district has products and services which are being exported, and can be further promoted, along with new products / services, to increase production, grow exports, generate economic activity and achieve the goal of AtmaNirbhar Bharat, Vocal for local and Make in India. Products/services (GI products, agricultural clusters, toy clusters etc.) with export potential in each District have to be identified and institutional mechanism in the form of District Export Promotion Committees (DEPCs) at the district level is to be created to provide support for export promotion and address the bottlenecks for export growth in the Districts. Each District shall constitute a District Export Promotion Committee (DEPC) chaired by Collector/DM/DC of the District and co-chaired by designated DGFT Regional Authority with various other stakeholders as its members. The primary function of the DEPC will be to prepare and implement district specific Export Action Plans in collaboration with all the relevant stakeholders at the Central, State and the District level. DGFT Regional Authorities will be engaging with all the relevant State and Central agencies to take forward this initiative in each district. 3.2 District Export Action Plans for Each District The District Export Action Plan (DEAP) may be prepared for each district. 2-3 high potential products/services from the districts may be prioritised and comprehensive plan for their export growth may be prepared. It may include the support required by the local industry in boosting their manufacturing and exports with impetus on supporting the industry from the production stage to the exporting stage. The DEAPs may also include specific quantifiable targets to be achieved in the short term and long term. These plans may outline the interventions that are required to promote the export of identified products and services from the district. Each DEAP may be deliberated by the DEPC and various stakeholders before it is formally adopted by the DEPC of the each District. DEAP of each District, once adopted, may be published in the public domain on a dedicated Portal. 3.3 State/UT Export Promotion Committees To synergise the efforts of the Department of Commerce/ DGFT and the State/UT governments in promotion of exports from the State, each State shall constitute a State Export Promotion Committee (SEPC) headed by Chief Secretary of the State. The designated Regional Authority of DGFT shall be the co-convener of the committee. 3.4 Nodal DGFT Regional Authority Districts of the States/UTs have been assigned to the Jurisdictional DGFT Regional Authority and the nodal RA shall be responsible for the Districts under their jurisdiction for all activities related to Districts as Export Hubs initiative in those Districts. 3.5 Online Monitoring of District Export Action Plans DGFT would develop an online monitoring portal that may be accessed on the DGFT website to enable the States/ DGFT RAs to upload all information related to the products/services with export potential of every District. The portal may also help in monitoring the progress of District Export Action Plan and DEPC meetings in all the Districts. Each DGFT Jurisdictional RA to be primarily responsible for updating the information/progress made in implementing Export Action Plan for each District under their Jurisdiction. The information and reports may also be available in public domain for the benefit of the exporters. 3.6 Export Promotion Activities in Districts Support in the form of product/sector specific training and development needs of local industries, dissemination of information through outreach activities including buyer-seller meets, trade fairs, workshops etc. may be provided in each District. The training and development needs of District industries may be identified and trainings may be coordinated with other departments. DGFT RAs through DEPCs may facilitate such buyer-seller meets, exhibitions, trade fairs etc. in the District to encourage the industries to showcase their products/services to the world. 3.7 Implementation of District Export Action Plans The District Export Action Plan notified by the District Export Promotion Committee in each District may include clear identification of products (goods and services) with export potential in the District, institutional/other responsibilities, specifics of policy, regulatory and operational reform, and infrastructure/utilities/logistics interventions required across the entire chain from producer/farm to the export destination, to cover aspects like production, productivity/ competitiveness, improvements required in design, tie up of producers with exporters, aggregation, sorting, testing, certification, packaging, transportation through cold chain or otherwise, import export regulatory formalities, fulfilment of destination countries standards etc. It may also include Identifying bottlenecks/Issues in GI production, registration, marketing and its exports. The plan may also include the support required by the local industry in boosting their manufacturing and exports with impetus on supporting the industry from the production stage to the exporting stage. Once the plan is formally adopted by the DEPC of the each District, the plan may be implemented by the DEPC by identifying the projects/activities required to be done to promote export growth from the Districts. Convergence of various schemes would be done on priority to build synergy and access the central government and State government scheme funds available for infrastructure development and skill/capacity building activities. Department of Commerce schemes such as Market Access Initiative, Niryat Bandhu scheme etc. may also give priority to district specific needs identified under the District Export Action Plan.