In a bid to boost exports of India’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), ecommerce giant Amazon has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), which falls under the purview of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
As a part of this MoU, the ecommerce major, in partnership with the DGFT, will co-create capacity building sessions, training and workshops for MSMEs across 75 districts which are a part of the ‘Districts as Export Hubs’ initiative outlined in the Foreign Trade Policy introduced in March this year.
The initiative is aimed at linking local producers in rural and remote districts with global supply chains.
Through this programme, Amazon and DGFT will educate the MSMEs about exports and help them reach the global market. Amazon will also enable access to a host of third-party service providers for the MSMEs to engage with for availing services like product image, digital cataloguing of their products, tax advisory, among others.
Commenting on the initiative, DGFT’s additional secretary and director general Santosh Sarangi said, “To promote ecommerce exports from the districts, DGFT is collaborating with the various ecommerce platforms to hold training and capacity building sessions in the districts. In the first such collaboration with different ecommerce platforms, DGFT is collaborating with Amazon as a step towards our goal of enabling $200-$300 Bn in ecommerce exports from India by 2030.”
He further added that this initiative is a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of converting each district into an export hub. “We are working closely with state governments and private players to leverage the potential of each district across India and enable MSMEs, farmers and small industries to benefit from export opportunities in overseas markets,” he added.
Amazon, which is a major player in the Indian ecommerce market, along with Flipkart, has been focussing on increasing exports from the country. The company is reportedly eyeing exports worth $20 Bn from India by 2025. Amazon said it would achieve the target by adding thousands of small sellers to its network and ecommerce marketplace.
India is an important market for the US-based ecommerce company and it has been on a spree of new announcements for the country. Earlier this week, Amazon signed an MoU with the Inland Waterways Authority of India to ship customer packages through inland waterways.
Earlier this month, it also launched its last-mile fleet programme in India with 100% electric vehicles, a global first for the company.
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