The overall jump in chemicals exports was substantially better in the face of an overall slowdown on the domestic front.

The Basic Chemicals, Pharmaceutical and Cosmetics Export Promotion Council (Chemexcil)'s newly elected Chairman, Kishore R Chokhani feels:" This figure looks impressive and I have good faith on our members that they will achieve more export growth in the years ahead".

According to Mr Chokhani, the Indian chemical industry has to tap its full potential as a reliable supplier of chemicals in the global market. ``We need to tap ready demand for speciality chemicals, pharma, agro, perfumery, dyes and other chemicals".

For this purpose, Mr Chokhani says he'll ``revitalize'' Chemexcil to achieve higher exports. Also, he plans to give a renewed thrust on marketing and liasioning with the government, both of which is currently absent.`To boost the chemical export growth, Chemexcil will open regional offices at Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and New Delhi, thereby meeting the demand of the export community in these regions who will contribute to the chemical exports''. Chemexcil's future role, according to Mr Chokhani, will be to assist marketing efforts of members,collect and disseminate data among the members, improve network within the industry and improve relations with the government and research institutions. Mr Chokhani feels the government can play an important role to expand the horizons of the chemicals industry as this is the basic industry for any economy. In order to improve exports, Mr Chokhani feels, the government can help the industry to set up warehouses and improve logistics in the overseas markets to meet buyers'demands without delays. Also, the government needs to exempt from tax and levies research and development of new molecules to encourage high tech services.``In a rapidly changing global market, India's chemicals industry lags behind but should try to tap the untapped world market''.

By around 2005, Indian pharmaceutical companies are expected to come up with new drug molecules either through contract research or contract manufacturing. ``Global trends offered a range of opportunities for Indian drug companies, and we can take advantage of these''.

Against the competition from China and Korea Mr Chokhani feels that, there must be certain amount of compulsion on the part of each state government to earn certain amount of foreign exchange required for their state so that there would be greater involvement of state governments in the export promotion activity of the country''.