Fapcci to set up intl trade facilitation centre

The Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Fapcci) will be setting up an 'International Trade Facilitation Centre' with the support of the Andhra Pradesh government in the next three months.

The facilitation centre will not only help in attracting investors to the state but will also help exporters from the state to find markets abroad and organise cost-effective transport with the help of an online database.

Speaking on the sidelines of a three-day training programme on exports, O P Goenka, president of Fapcci, said, "The Andhra Pradesh government has given its in-principle approval to this project."

The centre will organise regular training programmes for exporters and we are looking at making it operational in the next three months, he added.

"We are also looking at developing an online facility for the centre to enable easy and quick interaction with the traders in Andhra Pradesh. This is to ensure that the traders from various districts in the state do not have to travel to Hyderabad to take advantage of the facilitation centre," Goenka said.

"The centre will also train nodal officers of each district on issues pertaining to exports and imports," he added.

Sutirtha Bhattacharya, commissioner of industries, commerce and export promotion wing, Government of Andhra Pradesh, said, "Most of the traders do not have the required information on issues that affect the import/export business. This is because they do not know who they can address their queries to. We are, therefore, working with the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) to see if this issue can be dealt with."

"We are trying to work out a method by which traders can be guided through the initial hiccups that affect their business," Bhattacharya said.

"The initial hand-holding to traders will be provided by us with the help of experts from ASCI in this regard," he added.

"Andhra Pradesh is not a land-locked state. We not only have an international airport coming up in the coming years, but we also have another port coming up at Krishnapatnam in Nellore," Bhattacharya said.

The port at Nellore is likely to become operational in December 2007 with a handling capacity of 15 million tonnes annually.

"We, however, need to sit up and take notice of non-tariff barriers like unnecessary delay in cargo clearance that other countries adopt to prevent our goods from entering their market," Bhattacharya said.