Amazon India & EDII's MoU aims to drive Gujarat exports

As part of the MoU, Amazon will focus on bringing weavers and artisans as well as other micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) from Gujarat on Amazon’s e-commerce exports programme called Amazon Global Selling. This will enable them to sell their unique ‘Made in India’ products to hundreds of millions of Amazon customers across more than 200 countries and territories, Amazon said in a press release.

The Cottage and Rural Industries Department will identify more than 1,000 artisans from Gujarat in the handloom and handicraft sector through Hastkala Setu Yojana, one of its flagship programmes, who are interested in scaling their business through exports and enable them to attend the workshops and training programmes. Amazon and EDII will conduct training sessions, workshops, and awareness sessions on B2C e-commerce exports for the artisans from across the state.

The sessions will educate artisans on how to register and list their products to sell on over 18 Amazon Global Marketplaces apart from educating them on tools that make exports easier and will be conducted through a mix of in-person workshops and online webinars. This collaboration between Amazon EDII and the Gujarat government will help foster a supportive community by facilitating networking opportunities for MSME with like-minded individuals, mentors, and industry experts to help them enhance their market visibility.

“One of our key priorities has been to boost exports from Gujarat and through this partnership with Amazon, we aim to empower lakhs of MSMEs in Gujarat to embrace e-commerce exports. It will help them leverage Amazon’s global presence to showcase their products to customers across the world. MSMEs taking their local products to global customers will play a critical role in supporting the local economy and display the strength of the state’s culture and heritage as well as our manufacturing and innovation capabilities,” said Balvantsinh Rajput, minister, industries, micro, small and medium industries, cottage, khadi and rural industries, civil aviation, labour, and employment.

“This collaboration with Amazon is a great integration of culture, technology, and economy. One of our biggest priorities is to boost exports from Gujarat and working with Amazon Global Selling, MSMEs and weavers and artisans of Gujarat, we will be able to showcase their products to customers across the world,” said Jagdish Vishwakarma (Panchal), state minister, Gujarat.

Bhupen Wakankar, director global trade at Amazon India, said: “This collaboration is a key step towards helping lakhs of MSMEs and weavers and artisans across the state grow their business globally through e-commerce exports. Gujarat is already one of the top exporting states on Amazon Global Selling with 12,000 exporters coming from big and small cities across the state. We see a strong potential in boosting exports of products across categories like apparel, beauty, consumables, gems, and jewellery as well as GI-tagged products like Surat’s Zari Craft, Kutch Embroidery, and Pithora Paintings.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (NB)