With a focus on enhancing the
contribution from the services sector, which accounts for over 50 per cent in
the country’s GDP growth, the government is planning to give incentives to the
sector in the upcoming foreign trade policy and Budget.
According to commerce and
industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman, besides IT and ITeS, huge opportunities
exists in other areas such as tourism, wellness, yoga and hospitality and some
incentives may be given to the sector in the FTP and Budget to give it a
fillip.
Commerce secretary Rajeev
Kher, present during the occasion, said that the services in focus include IT,
ITeS, education, healthcare, logistics, media and entertainment, professional
services, tourism, and research and development among others.
He added that share of
India’s services sector in the global services trade is only 3 per cent as
compared to 4.6 per cent of China.
Earlier during the day, the
commerce minister met her US counterpart Penny Pritzker and discussed a host of
issues related to the totalisation agreement, intellectual property rights (IPR)
and visa concerns during the 40-minute meeting.
