ECGC plans major revamp

ECGC 8212; which was founded by the Indian government 8212; is functioning under the administrative control of the Minister of Commerce to promote exports by providing export credit insurance to exporters and bankers. The recommendations are forwarded to the Commerce Ministry for final approval.

Of the total 239 recommendations, 98 will be executed within six months, 60 within six months to one year and 73 within one to two years. Eight recommendations made by the consultants will be examined in detail later. 8220;Some of the recommendations like the introduction of informationtechnology cannot be implemented overnight,8221; he said.

He added that the restructuring will not involve retrenchment as the existing staff could be absorbed in various expansion schemes planned by the corporation. While ECGC will be free to recruit specialists and experts for specialised services, the service rules regarding reservation as per government policies will continue, he added. 8220;The restructuring exercise is done with the close coordination of the workers,8221; he added. ECGC has over 639 staff. J Rajagopal, Managing Director, Camp;L, who headed a 15 member team to study the restructuring said 8220;we adopted the Coopers amp; Lybrand modular approach to restructuring with interlinkages between modules. The modules included business process design, organisation structure, human resources and information technology.8221;

One of the recommendations is that ECGC should take up the matter of setting up a National Interest Account by Government of India as available to a number of export credit agencies abroad.Mehta said ECGC was in parleys with some banks to set up a separate export factoring business joint venture. 8220;To start, with we will independently take up margin factoring and later set up a joint venture company,8221; he said, adding that forfeiting service would come at a much later stage. For new business acquisition, the consultants have suggested that ECGC should expand its sales force to 100 well trained and equipped field officers one of the recommendation of C amp; L is that ECGC should take up the matter of setting up a national interest account by government of India as available to a number of export credit agencies abroad.