Indian exports to WANA region grow by over 28%
Monday, 02 June 2003, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: India will be hosting a series of conferences over the next week with commercial representatives from the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) region to further push bilateral trade that registered a 28 percent rise last year. During April 2002-February 2003, Indian exports to countries in the WANA region touched $6.72 billion as compared to $5.22 billion in the corresponding period of the previous year, a commerce ministry statement said Friday. India's non-oil imports from the region were worth $3.2 billion in April-February 2002-03 as against $2.93 billion in the previous year, registering an increase of 9.5 percent. The commerce ministry in association with various industry lobbies will be holding meetings in the major metros from June 3-7 to facilitate better industry interaction with WANA commercial representatives. The WANA team will include representatives from Jordan, UAE, Algeria, Egypt, Sudan, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran and Israel. "The conferences are expected to facilitate effective interaction between the representatives and members of the business and trade community in the country, which will help identify factors hampering exports to countries in the WANA region and to formulate market-specific measures to boost exports to the countries in the region," the commerce ministry stated. WANA region occupies an important position in India's foreign trade accounting for nearly 13.2 percent of the country's global exports, which crossed $51 billion mark last year. India's principal exports to this region comprise gems and jewellery, textiles, yarn and apparels, manufactures of metals, rice, machinery and instruments, meat and preparations, drugs, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, tea etc. "On account of large imports of oil, petroleum products and fertilizers from the region, India has a large adverse balance of trade with the region as a whole," the ministry said. Besides crude oil, petroleum products and fertilisers, India's principle imports from the region include inorganic and organic chemicals, pearls and precious/semi-precious stones, metalliferrous ores and metal scrap.
Source: IANS
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