PM Narendra Modi to inaugurate global exhibition on services on April 23

NEW DELHI: In an effort to give a thrust to services exports, India is organising a global exhibition on services that will see participation from sixty countries including Pakistan, Australia, US, Russia and Germany in New Delhi.
The BJP government aims to encourage services sector, running simultaneous with the Make in India campaign to revive manufacturing in the economy.

"This shows that we are not forgetting about services at the time of Make In India," said commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman adding that while manufacturing is important so is services, that has inherently been India's strength. The global exhibition in services (GES) will be an annual event. The first edition will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday. It is pitched to serve as a platform for extensive business networking, joint ventures, exchange of ideas, brand visibility and exploration of newer revenue models according to the government. The three-day exhibition is being jointly organised by the department of commerce, services exports promotion council and industry body CII.

With a 3.2 per cent global share, India has a trade surplus in services as against a large deficit in merchandize trade. India's services exports stood at $151 bn in 2014-15. "Services trade helps us in neutralising the imbalance of merchadize trade," said commerce secretary Rajeev Kher. Of the 60 countries, 39 will set up their stalls while the rest will get their delegations.

The nine sectors in the exhibition include IT & telecom, tourism, media and entertainment, healthcare, logistics, professional services (including project exports and banking & financial services, education, R & D, space and the small & medium enterprises engaged in services.

While IT/ITES has been supporting the services exports, government wants other sectors to start contributing as well. In the five year foreign trade policy announced early this month, services exports from India scheme was extended to close to 80 sectors in the form of duty credit scrips. About 10 economic ministers from participating countries, including Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb, Bangladesh Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, Nepal’s Commerce Minister Sunil Bahadur Thapa and Irish Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton.