Textile Minister S Vaghela opens Indian Handicrafts & Gifts Fair
13 Oct '05
3 min read
Shri Shankarsinh Vaghela
The Union Minister for Textiles, Shri Shankarsinh Vaghela stated that the handicrafts industry is one of the largest employers of economically weaker sections of the society in the interiors of the country and also one of the largest foreign exchange earner.
While inaugurating the 20th Indian Handicrafts & Gifts Fair (IHGF) at Pragati Maidan in the Capital today, he observed that the handicrafts sector has tremendous potential in the world market.
The Minister informed that export of handicrafts in 2004-05 crossed Rs.13032.70 crores that is 2.9 billion US dollars registering growth of 24.53 percent in rupee term and 29.07 percent in dollar term. The growth in the current year is also impressive witnessing achievement of 16.01 percent in the month of September, 2005 in dollar terms.
Shri Vaghela said the world trade in handicrafts is of the order of US $ 235 billion but India's share in the same is only 1.6 percent . Therefore, there is a need to strategize the export promotion measure to increase India's share in the world market. Shri Vaghela assured full support of the Textile Ministry to the Handicrafts sector in implementing aggressive international marketing programmes focused on key markets and selected product groups.
Shri Navratan Samdria, Chairman, EPCH informed the gathering that more than 7500 overseas buyers would be attending the fair. Most of these buyers are from countries like USA, Germany, UK, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Israel, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa who are traditional buyers.
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