Minister of state for commerce & industry Jyotiraditya Scindia on Thursday called upon the Indian chemical industry to become a premier supplier of value-added products from being a supplier of raw material.
Speaking at the CHEMEXCIL Export Awards function here, Scindia said, the government is providing assistance under the Market Access Initiative Scheme to evolve specific products for specific markets.
?Even though India has an abundant supply of basic raw materials, we will have to build up technical services, R&D and marketing capabilities to face global competition and increase our share of exports. The erstwhile cost advantage of China with respect to India in manufacturing is becoming insignificant. Besides having access to a rich pool of knowledge workers, India provides a robust legal and regulatory framework for research-based development,? he added.
Touching upon the need to diversify India?s export profile, Scindia said, besides traditional markets like USA, EU and Japan, there is a tremendous scope in Latin America, CIS, Asean & African regions. Scindia called upon the captains of the chemical industry to take advantage of the situation to ensure that ?Made in India? becomes synonymous with a quality and technologically advanced product.
Reacting to the challenge of REACH, the new legislation of European Commission, which requires EU producers and importers to perform a chemical safety assessment of their products and provide information to their customers, Scindia said the ?Indian producers must take conscious steps to adhere to international norms for environmental protection and work towards preserving Mother Earth for our future generations by promoting safe use of chemicals.? He asked the industry to avail the assistance provided by the Centre for pre-registering all the relevant chemical substances, so that chemical exports from India to the EU are not adversely impacted.
The global chemical industry, estimated at $1.7 trillion, is one of the fastest growing sectors of the manufacturing industry. In India, the chemical sector accounts for about 18% of the output of the manufacturing sector, 14-15% of total exports and 8-9% of total imports of the country.