Number down 40 per cent in the last fiscal.
The number of overseas trade fairs organised by the Indian Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), a state-run agency functioning within the commerce ministry, has shown a sharp decline of 40 per cent in the last fiscal, compared with the previous year. This is mainly because key markets where these trade promotion activities are held are in the grip of a severe economic crisis.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which depend on these India-focused fairs to secure orders from overseas clients, are likely to get impacted as they do not have the resources to establish offices abroad.
Data available with ITPO revealed that the trade promotion agency organised only 37 fairs abroad in 2008-09, against 61 in 2007-08.
“The decreasing number of fairs in the conventional exhibition centres of the West is a result of the slowdown in the western economies. But this is being offset by an increased number of opportunities in the fast-growing East Asia and West Asia nations,” said Safdar H Khan, senior general manager, ITPO.
The 35 fairs proposed for the current fiscal indicate that the number may further decline marginally by 5 per cent. The fairs in the US and European Union alone showed a staggering dip of 50 per cent and 65 per cent, respectively, in 2008-09.
Developed markets like the US, the EU and Japan account for more than 40 per cent of India’s exports. These economies, which together account for nearly half of the world output, are contracting because of the ongoing economic crisis, the worst since World War II.
“Businesses in the West are shying from participating in exhibitions to save their bottomlines in this phase of the downturn,” said Biswajeet Dhar, a trade expert with the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.
Trade fairs and exhibitions give an alternative low-cost platform to exporters to showcase their products for an international market. “In the backdrop of a weakening demand in the developed economies, we are focusing on the fast-growing economies of South-East Asia, East Asia, Latin America and West Asia,” said Ajay Sahay, director-general of Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), the apex body for export promotion.
The domestic fairs by ITPO too clocked a 28 per cent decline to 20, compared with 28 fairs held in 2007-08.
