Mumbai, Oct 28 (PTI) The country's share in global electronic exports is a paltry 0.3 per cent or USD 7.79 billion but can grow significantly higher if the government frames conducive policies or at least replicates the success that mobile phone exports have made, says the WTC.

The country's share in global electronic exports inched up from 0.1 per cent in 1995 to 0.3 per cent in 2019, even though the market grew manifold to USD 2.74 trillion in 2019, according to the WTC, quoting the Unctad data.

Also Read | Bank Jobs 2020-21: UCO Bank, IBPS, SBI and More, Check Out Vacancies, Official Websites and Important Dates to Apply at Various Banking Recruitment Exams.

The WTC also called for replicating the rapid progress India made in mobile phone exports in recent years and pointed out that the same level of success can be replicated in segments like computing devices, components for electric vehicles, printed circuit boards, wearable devices etc.

The share of land-line phone-sets and mobile phones in overall electronic goods exports grew from 4 per cent in FY2016 to 35 per cent in FY2020 after the phased manufacturing was pushed.

Also Read | How US is Voting in Presidential Election 2020: Early Voting, In-Person Voting, Mail-In And Absentee Ballots Explained.

The WTC has suggested a host of policies to transform the country into a global hub for electronic system design manufacturing.

It called for reducing minimum investment limit under production-linked incentive scheme for select electronic components announced in April to Rs 20 crore from Rs 100 crore, so that MSMEs can also participate.

The WTC also suggested extending the scheme to IT and datacom products like computers, laptops, tablets, servers to offset domestic manufacturing disability; setting up a government-industry working group to scale up telecom network product manufacturing; and setting up testing and certification labs for locally designed products.

It has also urged the government to encourage downstream manufacturing by providing maximum incentives at the raw material stage at the level of manufacturing laminates, thin films, ingots, wafer etc; and introducing a uniform policy across the states for electronics sector.

The WTC says electronics sector can be the engine of manufacturing growth in the post-pandemic era with appropriate policy interventions, including handholding of MSMEs, cluster development and discouraging cheap imports under free trade agreements.

The report finds the share of ASEAN countries in electronics imports grew from 14 per cent in FY2010 to 21 per cent in FY2020 largely due to rising concessional imports under the India-ASEAN FTA.

China is the largest exporter of electronic goods, with a global share of 26 per cent, followed by Hong Kong at 13 per cent. Other major exporters are South Korea, the US, Germany and Japan, at 6.8 per cent, 6.6 per cent, 4.8 per cent and 3.2 per cent, respectively, show the Unctad data.

It said while our share in electronics export remained more or less muted between 0.1 per cent and 0.3 per cent of the global marker of USD 2.74 trillion, the corresponding figures for Malaysia and Vietnam stood at 3 per cent, and that for Thailand at 2 per cent, show the latest data.

In fact, the share of Hong Kong has more than doubled from 5.4 to 13 per cent since 1995, while that of South Korea grew marginally from 4.9 to 6.8 per cent and Vietnam had no exports in 1995 but now 2.9 per cent.

In the meanwhile, Japan and the US saw their share declining sharply during this period, and Germany's contracted marginally.

"We have a huge opportunity to capture the world electronics market because of the shifting global supply chain from China after the pandemic, and progressive policy measures like production linked incentives," the WTC said.

In the past few months, global and domestic electronic companies have committed USD 100 billion worth of electronic goods production, 80 per cent of which will be for exports, under the production linked incentive scheme.

In the past two months alone, the country received 44 applications under another scheme that gives capital subsidy for investors.

The government expects at least Rs 50,000 crore investment in the electronics component manufacturing segment alone under this scheme in the next few years, the report said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)