Commerce Department restructuring to prepare India to become a key global player in world trade, says Goyal

New Delhi, August 24, 2022

The restructuring of the Commerce Department would prepare India to become a key global player in world trade, according to Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal.

“Restructuring of the Department of Commerce has been undertaken to meet the needs of the future. This will enable us to adopt international best practices and prepare ourselves for greater multilateral and bilateral engagement with other countries,” he said

Releasing a dossier on the Department of Commerce Restructuring at Vanijya Bhawan here on Tuesday, Goyal said the exercise rests on five major pillars.

Besides increasing India's share in global trade it would enable the country to assume a leadership role in multilateral organisations. It would also lead to the democratisation of trade and create 100 Indian Brands as Global Champions. It would also help in setting up Economic Zones in India to strengthen the manufacturing base and attract greater investments to the country.

He said the restructuring was in line with Mission Karmayogi launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the objective of skill development and upgradation of employees in Government departments and Ministries.

The 14 volumes of the report define the role of each section within the Department and lay down the expected outcomes and key performance indicators. These manuals would enable all the relevant stakeholders to understand their role in the revamped department and help the organization perform effectively, he said.

The Minister said the focus on exports has been one of the most defining features of the government's efforts to make India a developed country by 2047, a vision articulated by Modi in his Independence Day address to the nation this year.

“Indian Trade and Commerce will not only be a strong element in the country’s march to prosperity, towards becoming a developed nation when we turn 100 in 2047 but also play an extremely important role in serving the needs of the whole world.

“We aspire to achieve 2 trillion dollars worth of exports by 2030. This will make us among the top nations in world trade and change the way the world sees us,” he added.

Goyal noted some of the ideas that have emerged out of the Restructuring exercise include a dedicated "Trade Promotion Body" to drive formulation & execution of promotion strategy, Digitization of trade facilitation processes, Rehauling of the data & analytics ecosystem and capacity building of Indian Trade Service to drive specialization and institutional memory.

NNN