Shri Kamal Nath, India’s Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, has said that exports have generated an incremental direct employment of one million jobs in the year 2004-05, over the previous year. The announcement was made at the release this year’s Annual Supplement to the Foreign Trade Policy  (FTP) 2004-09.

Quoting a study commissioned by the Commerce Ministry, the Minister said that exports reached $78 billion in 2004 and this has led to one million direct and indirect jobs being created. "The study further reveals that we shall be adding a further one million jobs if we achieve the target of $150 billion over the next four years," he said.

Shri Kamal Nath said that apart from doubling India’s share of global merchandise trade in five years, the major objective of the FTP was generation of employment in rural and semi-urban areas.

"With this in view, the FTP announced special focus initiatives in the employment intensive areas of agriculture, handicrafts, handlooms, gems & jewellery and leather & footwear sectors. The employment generation has been encouraging not only in these sectors, but in other sectors across the board," he said.

Share this story: