New Delhi: Indian foreign policy will be in tandem with domestic polices to support Indian industries to convert the country into low cost manufacturing destination of the world, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Wednesday.
Addressing the webinar on ‘New World Order – A Perspective For Indian Industry’, organised by FICCI, Mr Shringla said that Indian industries must seize global opportunities amidst COVID-19 crisis.
“The slowdown will impact all nature of economies. This pandemic is expected to leave us with a thoroughly different world. We must be prepared for reinvention of the world order. India has been at the forefront of multilateral cooperation,” the foreign secretary said.
Highlighting the potential sectors, Mr Shringla said that IT and IT enabled services are the strong points of the Indian services sector.
“India has already proved its mettle in some of the critical sectors of the world economy like pharma, agri waste, food processing, textiles, automobiles, electronics are some of our fastest growing industries,” he said.
“Building on our strengths and enhancing our potential is the key to our economic revival as well as to position ourselves as the low-cost manufacturing destination of the world,” he added.
Mr Shringla also emphasised on the need to increase our exports so that Indian companies can also become part of the global supply chains. “Connectivity initiatives in the neighbourhood can act as a force multiplier. Enhanced connectivity provides stronger possibilities for pushing exports,” he said.
“The pandemic has also impacted the process of globalisation. In the short-term, countries would look to the production locally. Building on our strength and innovation capabilities will be key to recovery and growth,” he added.
Highlighting the importance of manufacturing sectors and exports, Mr Shringla said, “Once we overcome our domestic requirements of COVID-related medicines and healthcare products, we will move into exports. We have huge demand from other countries.”
Appreciating the efforts of Vande Bharat mission, Mr Shringla said that government is in the process of making database of manpower returning and matching their skill set with the domestic industry needs.
Dr Sangita Reddy, President, FICCI said that this is the time to upscale, scale and reach out to people for partnerships.
“We appreciate the tremendous work done by the government in handling COVID-19. We wholeheartedly subscribe to and support the concept of Atmanirbhar Bharat,” she added.
“We completely believe that this is the time for India to enhance geopolitical relations and economic ties with other countries,” said Dr Reddy.
