The government hopes the gems and jewellery sector to grow 6-7 per cent per annum and has set at target of USD 60 billion exports by 2022 from the present USD 43 billion, a senior officer said here today.
"We are hopeful of country's gems and jewellery exports to touch USD 60 billion by 2022 and expect 6 to 7 per cent growth in exports annually," Department of Commerce Joint Secretary Manoj Dwivedi told reporters on the sidelines of a jewellery show here.
India exported gems & jewellery worth USD 43.2 billion during fiscal 2017, a rise of nearly 10 per cent over the previous fiscal's export figure of $39.2 billion.
After inaugurating 34th edition of the India International Jewellery Show, IIJS 2017, Dwivedi said, "the jewellery industry needs to achieve a higher scale of achievement in the coming years in order to become globally competitive and promote jewellery exports".
"The government is making various policy initiatives to find out ways and mean to improve this sector since it is only sector having maximum employment opportunities to both skilled and unskilled workers pan India," he added.
Although the downward trend witnessed in the global markets, the country's gems and jewellery exports showed upward trend, which is very positive sign, he said.
"We want to explore new markets for jewellery and diamond exports for which process is on," Dwivedi said.
Praveenshankar Pandya, chairman, GJEPC, said that having crossed the USD 40 billion exports mark, the trade body is now devising a strategy named Vision 2022 to enable India attain global leadership position in gems and jewellery.
"We have set the exports target of USD 60 billion by 2022 and USD 80 billion by 2025. The trend this year is good and we target growth of 10 per cent in the current year. We will be happy to register USD 47 billion exports this year, he said.
On the sidelines of IIJS 2017, GJEPC also signed a MoU with Diamond Producers Association (DPA) to support the miner-backed group's international diamond-jewelry promotion efforts. The industry will be spending USD 200 million for the promotions of the trade across the globe and India may get share of around USD 5 million for the promotions, Pandya added.
Meanwhile, India International Jewellery Show, a five-day B2B event which opened today, is expected to provide business opportunity to explore the various multi-faceted aspects of the industry. The event witnessed more than 870 exhibitors participation, which includes participation from 30 countries.
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