Piyush Goyal plans 1,000-strong regional language network to handhold exporters

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said that instead of establishing separate offices of every department in every location, integrated Commerce and Industry offices are envisaged in major cities to provide businesses with a common point of access to multiple departments and agencies. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) organized a stakeholder workshop on Ease of Doing Business, Free Trade Agreement (FTA) opportunities, and ongoing trade-related reforms in New Delhi, during which Goyal outlined the government’s approach to strengthening export facilitation through physical and digital mechanisms.

Goyal announced a proposed network of approximately 1,000 trained local personnel, with knowledge of regional languages, to support exporters and prospective exporters at the district and state levels. These personnel would be trained and subsequently deployed to provide handholding support to businesses, including through industry chambers and regional associations.

Goyal also informed participants about the Trade Connect platform being developed to provide exporters with product-wise and HSN-code-wise information, including destination-country tariffs, FTA opportunities and procedures for availing FTA benefits. The platform is also envisaged to use digital and AI-enabled tools to help businesses identify potential export opportunities and infrastructure gaps.

A dedicated session was held on recent FTAs and trade facilitation reforms, providing industry with an overview of opportunities and obligations arising from India’s trade agreements. Industry representatives highlighted the need for greater interoperability between government systems and foreign trade platforms, including digital transmission and verification of Certificates of Origin under FTAs, with the proposal to extend such electronic processes to other FTA partners noted for examination. Industry also highlighted the need for further integration of the export cycle involving the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Customs, banks and other stakeholders.

The interaction also covered logistics and trade-process bottlenecks, including documentation backlogs and concerns relating to sea-freight costs. The roller chain and industrial components manufacturing sector highlighted the positive impact of recent policy interventions in strengthening domestic manufacturing, reporting that measures including Quality Control Orders (QCOs), Minimum Import Price (MIP) provisions and higher import duties have supported a 15-fold expansion in the sector, fresh investments of approximately Rs 500 crore and the generation of around 5,000 new jobs.