Presiding over the meeting of the Board of Trade here on Wednesday, Mr Maran said: ``Competition from China is a challenge which cannot be met by anti-dumping measures alone... the ultimate answer is to improve our competitiveness." The minister met the members of the Board of Trade to elicit their views about the Exim Policy to be announced on March 31.

The minister also agreed with the members that transaction cost as well as cost of export credit must be reduced and there should be far greater involvement of states for imparting a new dynamism to the country's export effort.

Mr Maran said while there was optimism resulting from a robust growth of 20 per cent in the current year, there were some apprehensions due to slowdown of US economy and a new trade regime at home.

Responding to members' suggestions, the minister said the offices of the DGFT had been completely computerised and stated that this together with computerisation of the customs department within 2001-02 would result in much faster export-related transactions.

He added that special economic zones (SEZs), which were announced in the Exim Policy 2000-01, had emerged as new locations for hassle-free manufacturing and trading activities.

Addressing the gathering, commerce secretary Prabir Sengupta said as of now only five to six anti-dumping cases were pending before the designated authority.

He further said it would be wrong to state that export growth during the current year was confined to only a few products as a large number of sectors had registered a growth of over 25 per cent in dollar terms. Editor, The Financial Express, Sanjaya Baru emphasised that major initiatives were required for sustaining 20 per cent export growth rate. He stressed that the trade should not be a residual activity but should be central to country's economic growth.

Speaking on the occasion, CII chairman Arun Bharat Ram urged the government to continue the DEPB scheme in view of the cost disabilities suffered by industry. He also stressed the need for de-reservation and procedural simplification for increasing exports and suggested that India should seek extension of Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) for its products in the US market for a period of seven years