Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Thursday called upon the Indian missions abroad to play an important role in identifying more business opportunities for domestic compes and making India a preferred and reliable destination for investments.
Speaking to 131 missions from different geographies on Thursday evening through video conferencing, along with the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Goyal said, "All should work to convert this COVID-19 situation into an opportunity by coming up with new reforms to improve our industries."
He added, "We should aim for an economic growth higher by 3x."
The minister informed that discussions have happened at the highest levels where clear instructions have been given to capture the opportunities opening after the post-COVID scenario.
"Around 100 countries have benefited from Indian pharma industries. India has shown a brotherhood and has believed in 'Vasudev Kutumbakam'," Goyal said.
Stating further that India is being seen as a reliable partner, he said that Indian missions should be helping with the identification of business opportunities that exist in their countries.
Goyal also said that Invest India and Department for Promotion of Investment and Internal Trade are working together to create a genuine single window for setting up factories and manufacturing units.
Asking the missions to report the opportunities in other countries, the minister stated that promoting trade and investment is a shared responsibility of missions as well as ministries.
"All the missions have been asked to send a proposal to look at the opportunity post-COVID-19. The proposal should have innovative ideas and should be submitted, containing suggestions to improve the exports," he stressed.
Meanwhile, Jaishankar said that India should take the opportunity of the outbreak to grow itself. He stated that as all the countries have taken a hit, the recovery path for India will be through trade and investment.
"Now missions have to take responsibility to get out of their offices, do networking, talk to compes and persuade them to invest in India," Jaishankar said while specifically focusing on pharmaceutical and agricultural sectors and in the African region.
Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan, during the meeting, also described the huge potential in improving exports which commerce ministry can achieve with the help of missions. He identified three areas of contribution -- promoting exports globally, promoting tourism in India and need for assessing technology which can be adopted by India.
The COVID-19 pandemic, infecting over three million people, has stifled the global economies and placed markets at a standstill.
( With inputs from ANI )