Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Railways, Piyush Goyal expressed hope that India can be recognized world over not only for its comparative and competitive cost advantage, but also for its superior products and superior quality of services. He said that the Finance Minister in the Budget 2019-20 has given a road map for the expansion of infrastructure in India with investment of one lakh crore rupees in the next five years.

The Government of India has undertaken several reform measures to cut down number of approvals required to set up a business. Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), through the State Reforms Action Plan, encourages States and Union Territories (UTs) to implement an online application system to fast track granting of approval and renewal under the Shops and Establishment Act of respective States which includes restaurant industry as well.

The meeting was attended by Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Railways, Piyush Goyal,Acting Minister of Commerce of Thailand, Ms. Chutima Bunyapraphasara, Minister of Trade of Indonesia, Enggartiasto Lukita, Secretary General, ASEAN, Lim Jock Hoi and TNC Chair of RCEP, Iman Pambagyo. Addressing the meeting Piyush Goyal said that RCEP holds enormous potential for economic growth and stability for the entire region. He expressed hope that the negotiations will achieve even greater convergence during the coming rounds in China and Vietnam.

The Government has also brought out a new Central Sector Scheme – ‘Transport and Marketing Assistance for Specified Agriculture Products’ - for providing assistance for the international component of freight, to mitigate the freight disadvantage for the export of agriculture products, and marketing of agricultural products. The Department of Commerce also has several schemes to promote exports, including exports of agricultural products, viz. Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme (TIES), Market Access Initiatives (MAI) Scheme, Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) etc.

As per the SOP, 8 to 10 weeks’ time has been fixed for decision on the proposals, excluding the time taken by applicants in removing deficiencies in the proposals/supplying additional information as may be required by the competent authority. Further, to ensure timely disposal of FDI proposals, periodic review is undertaken by DPIIT with other stakeholder Ministries/Departments. The number of FDI proposals received under Government approval route in the current year, upto June, 2019 is 55.