Commerce department being restructured to make it future ready: Goyal

The government is proposing to set up a trade promotion body and induct private sector experts as part of restructuring the Department of Commerce to make it future-ready and take exports to USD 2 trillion by 2030. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal released the 'The Department of Commerce Restructuring Dossier' on Tuesday here.

As part of the restructuring exercise, a dedicated trade promotion body would be set up to devise an overall strategy to achieve targets, he told reporters after releasing the dossier.

The focus of restructuring, he said, will also be on strengthening negotiations capability at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and for bilateral free trade agreements; centralisation and digitisation of trade facilitation processes and rehauling the data analytics ecosystem.

The objective is to increase India's share in global exports and also to create jobs, he noted.

He said the entire department is being restructured to make it relevant to the 21st century. Efforts are on to make India a developed country by 2047, he said.

The minister said the plan is to make the department modern and contemporary. The restructuring is based on five pillars -- increasing India's share of exports in global trade, assume a leadership role in multilateral organisations, like WTO; democratisation of trade; create 100 Indian brands as global champions, and setting up economic zones and industrial hubs across the country to strengthen the manufacturing and services base to attract investments.

The ministry would soon be seeking the Cabinet nod for setting up of the trade promotion body, the name for which is yet to be decided. It will also have professionals from the private sector besides government officials.

''We are preparing for greater multilateral and bilateral engagement with other countries. All of this has been studied and researched as a part of the restructuring exercise,'' Goyal said.

He further said Indian trade and commerce will not only be a strong element in India's march to prosperity, towards becoming a developed nation in the Amrit Kaal but also play an extremely important role in serving the needs of the whole world.

Goyal also said that there will be no reduction of manpower in the Commerce Ministry on account of restructuring, but may go up.

On the performance of the exports in the current fiscal, Goyal said that ''we are on track to achieve the target''.