Introduction: The Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, through the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), continues its efforts to enhance India’s presence in the global e-commerce market. A recent milestone in this endeavor is the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between DGFT and DHL, a global logistics service provider.
Detailed Analysis:
1. Initiative Overview: The DGFT has been actively involved in promoting e-commerce exports from India, particularly through its ‘District as Export Hubs’ initiative, aimed at empowering micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to tap into international markets via e-commerce platforms.
2. Collaborative Efforts: The partnership between DGFT and DHL signifies a strategic move to further bolster India’s e-commerce export capabilities. The MoU entails conducting capacity-building sessions, training, and workshops across 76 districts, aimed at preparing Indian MSMEs for global trade.
3. Key Objectives: The collaboration aims to introduce exporters and MSMEs to the digital commerce space, facilitating exports of ‘Make in India’ products and enabling them to reach international customers. It also seeks to address logistical challenges associated with e-commerce exports.
4. Government Support: The significance of this partnership is underscored by the involvement of high-ranking officials such as Shri Sunil Barthwal, Commerce Secretary, who highlighted India’s digital infrastructure and initiatives like Bharat Mart as catalysts for boosting foreign trade.
5. Industry Perspective: John Pearson, Global CEO of DHL Express, emphasized the company’s commitment to empowering MSMEs in the global market through initiatives like the Go Trade program, aligning with the objectives of the MoU.
6. Future Prospects: DGFT and DHL aim to leverage their combined expertise to support Indian exporters and MSMEs, providing them with necessary guidance and resources to navigate the global e-commerce landscape effectively.
7. Policy Alignment: The collaboration with DHL is part of a broader strategy outlined in the Foreign Trade Policy 2023, which aims to foster partnerships with e-commerce platforms and service providers to facilitate cross-border e-commerce sales.
Conclusion: The MoU signing between DGFT and DHL marks a significant step towards enhancing India’s e-commerce exports. By leveraging DHL’s global network and expertise, Indian MSMEs are poised to capitalize on international trade opportunities, contributing to the nation’s economic growth and global competitiveness.
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Ministry of Commerce & Industry
MoU signing between DGFT and DHL
Posted On: 14 MAR 2024 4:26PM by PIB Delhi
Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, has been actively engaging in boosting e-commerce exports from the country, leveraging its ‘District as Export Hubs’ initiative. The goal is to promote and enable micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to explore the international markets through e-commerce channels.
Taking this initiative further, DGFT has been collaborating with various e-commerce platforms and other service providers to handhold and do capacity building and training sessions in the identified districts under the districts as export hubs initiative. In a similar collaboration, today DGFT partnered with the global logistics service provider, DHL, through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which will cover 76 districts in three phases, to conduct capacity-building sessions, training, and workshops for making Indian MSMEs export-ready.
During the MoU signing event, Shri Sunil Barthwal, Commerce Secretary, highlighted the importance of e-Commerce ecosystem, and pointed out the strides taken by India to create a digital infrastructure which can be leveraged to encourage MSMEs from rural India to connect to the world market. He also pointed out the recent initiative of Bharat Mart and how such warehousing initiative would further India’s foreign trade. He conveyed his best wishes for the initiative and hoped that this would help Indian entrepreneurs to bridge the gap in knowledge and enter the world of international trade.
While welcoming the partnership, Shri Santosh Sarangi, DG, DGFT highlighted that the objective of this collaboration is to introduce exporters/MSMEs to the digital commerce space so that they get an opportunity to export “Make in India” products, tap international customers and overcome the challenges related to logistics while exporting through the e-commerce route.
Looking forward to this partnership, John Pearson, Global CEO of DHL Express emphasized that DHL is the first international express operator to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). This partnership with the Government of India will further solidify DHL’s commitment to India and aligns with DHL’s Go Trade program to empower MSMEs in the global market.
DGFT and DHL aim to bring together a team of knowledge experts to assist Indian exporters/MSMEs in the identified districts through handholding sessions and develop a start-up kit for first-time Exporters/MSMEs wanting to go global.
Aligning with the Foreign Trade Policy 2023, in the past few months, DGFT has signed MoUs with Amazon India and Shiprocket covering 20 and 16 districts respectively. These collaborations with e-commerce platforms and service providers have encouraged series of outreach events by DGFT- Regional Authorities to onboard new exporters; promote first-time exporters, and handhold MSME producers to become exporters through cross-border e-commerce sales under the District as Export Hub initiative.
