EEPC closes 2 overseas offices

Calcutta, March 23: Lower grants from the Union Ministry of Com merce and poor economic conditions have forced Engineering Export Promoti...

Calcutta, March 23: Lower grants from the Union Ministry of Com merce and poor economic conditions have forced Engineering Export Promotion Council EEPC, the oldest export promotion body in the country, to close down two of its five foreign offices.

Chairman of the council P K Shah told The Indian Express that EEPC closed down its offices in Jakarta and Johannesburg about three months ago. quot;Union commerce ministry officials agreed in principle to fund 75 per cent of the expenses of our overseas offices from the Market Development Assistance Fund. However, for the last two years, the grants were not more than 50 per cent. In such a situation we had to close down two of our foreign offices,quot; he said.

EEPC, which has three other foreign offices in Singapore, Dusseldorf and Chicago, faced certain situations for which they were forced to close these two offices. quot;The Jakarta office was closed down as we are hardly receiving any business queries from it due to the slowdown of the Indonesianeconomy,quot; Shah said.

The Johannesburg office was shifted from Nairobi only in the early part of 1997 to oversee the overall African market. However, Shah said this outpost not only suffered from the economic slowdown but was regularly attacked by the local hoodlums. quot;After the Mandela government took over in South Africa, the economy suffered terribly and there was not much business for our members. We faced another major problem as locals were constantly harassing our officials and attacking our office. All these factors forced us to close this office,quot; Shah said.

EEPC with its 8,000 members, is planning to open an office in Brazil to increase its business in the Latin American market. quot;We are planning to open a new office in Brasilia and will hire the office space of the Indian embassy. We have already sent the proposal for this new office to the Union commerce ministry along with our annual budget for 1999-2000. We have asked for a 50 per cent grant for the new office,quot; Shah added.

Shah expressedfears about declining engineering exports. After it was set up 1955, this is the first half-year that engineering exports registered a 3.5 per cent fall. He said by the year end, it may just cross the negative mark. quot;In the first half of the 1998-99, exports were worth about 2.42 billion against 2.57 billion in the corresponding period of the previous year. During the last three months, exports have picked up substantially but I feel we may just touch the 1997-98 export figure of 4.4 billion,quot; Shah said.

Shah cited poor steel offtake and the South East Asian crisis as the major causes behind this dismal show. quot;Out of our total exports, 22 per cent or approximately 1 billion, are from steel products.