ACMA recently organised a “National Conference on Accelerating Export Growth: Leveraging Market Dimension”, in New Delhi. The theme of the conference was accelerating the export growth of the Indian auto component industry in potential target markets across the globe.
The conference was addressed by noted experts from the Indian auto component industry who shared insights on the challenges and opportunities in the global market, including regulatory challenges faced by the industry.
The conference was inaugurated by Mr. S.R. Rao, Secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, who was the chief guest on the occasion. Dr. Anup Pujari, Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), and Dr. Surajit Mitra, Director, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), were the guests of honour. The other ACMA stalwarts present included Mr. Deep Kapuria, Past President, ACMA, and Chairman of Hi-tech Gears, Dr. Surinder Kapur, Past President of ACMA, and Chairman, Sona Group, and Mr. Harish Lakshman, Vice President, ACMA.
Inaugurating the conference, Mr. Rao said: “The Government is working very closely with the auto component industry and will take measures for promoting exports. The current 20 per cent depreciation in the Indian currency should encourage exports further, in an era of global competition. Unless the auto component industry in India moves up the value chain through focus on product development & IPR, it will be edged out by other competing nations. The industry should utilize this period of adversity for introspection and must reinvent itself by going back to the drawing board.”
Addressing the conference, Dr. Anup Pujari said: “The recently announced Foreign Trade Policy has several measures for promoting auto component exports from India; further should there be need for additional intervention from the government, it shall not be lacking. The auto component industry in India also needs to focus on R&D, better engineering capabilities and unique products valued by customers in the international markets.”
Mr. Surajit Mitra said there is an urgent need for a national strategy to navigate through the downturn in the auto component industry. The export product basket must be redefined and broadened to add non-conventional mechanical goods like electrical and electronic items.
Giving an industry perspective, Mr. Harish Lakshman observed: “The Indian auto component industry today works on a ‘build-to-print’ model and needs to graduate to what is termed as ‘art-to-part’. To overcome the high volatility in the environment, both domestic and international, it is imperative that we increase the geographical spread of exports, especially to the non-conventional but India-like markets such as Africa, South-Asia, Russia, etc. We also hope that impending reforms by the Government like those of GST, redressal of issues such as those of inverted duty structure due to FTAs, etc., will help improve the export performance in the near future. Lastly, adequate incentives are needed to mitigate challenges of high cost of doing business in India and the cost of infrastructural deficit for Indian exports to be competitive.”
Experts at the conference also deliberated upon the potential markets for export based on the global market dynamics. Opportunities and challenges in markets such as NAFTA, Brazil, Central Europe, CIS, Africa, ASEAN and China were also discussed at length.