An official release issued by the commerce ministry in Delhi on Monday said that Hegde also hinted that the forthcoming revised exim policy would see drastic steps to reduce procedural bottlenecks, paper work and delays which stood in the way of exports.

He agreed that there was a need to provide a level-playing field to enable exporters to compete effectively in the global market as also to urgently upgrade infrastructure facilities.

"At present, exports are nobody's baby", the commerce minister noted, adding that most other countries had built up their economies mainly through exports. He identified three factors responsible for thecountry's tardy export growth, namely, lack of infrastructure, constraints of federal polity and lack of commitment to treat exports as a national priority. At the same time, he urged exporters to introspect on their performance and to ensure the highest standards of quality so that the "Made in India" label could evoke an instant and spontaneous response in overseas markets. On exports during 1998-99, he observed that after a disappointing performance in the earlier months, the export growth in dollar terms had recovered reaching a level of 4.6 per cent in November, 6.4 per cent in December and well over 8 per cent in January, indicating that the series of policy measures taken by the government had started yielding results.