Guwahati: Assam and Manipur have moved up in the export preparedness index while other states of the Northeast have slipped in rankings.

NITI Aayog, in partnership with the Institute of Competitiveness, released the Export Preparedness Index (EPI) 2021 today.

In the 2020 report, Assam was ranked 28th and was below states like Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh too. Manipur has moved from 31st rank in 2020 to 29th rank this year.

The Export Preparedness Index (EPI) aims to examine the export performance and the export readiness of the states and union territories. The idea behind the index is to create a benchmark to rank these states and UTs to help them individually promote a conducive export environment in the region. An index is an essential tool for policymakers and exporters to identify the drivers and obstacles, and examine the same to strategize a viable export map for the state.

Assam is placed 15th across all states of India and union territories. "Assam has improved in the eight sub pillars and outperforms the national average in 4 of the 11 sub-pillars. Assam’s performance has shown the state’s efforts to improve its trade support to exporters. It has held 15 trade fairs and conducted 21 workshop training for capacity building
of exporters. These factors have driven its score high overall" the report says.

"It has all the policy mechanisms except for no district-specific export action plan," the report says.

The report is a comprehensive analysis of India’s export achievements. The index can be used by states and union territories (UTs) to benchmark their performance against their peers and analyze potential challenges to develop better policy mechanisms to foster export-led growth at the subnational level.

The EPI ranks states and UTs on 4 main pillars—Policy; Business Ecosystem; Export Ecosystem; Export Performance—and 11 sub-pillars—Export Promotion Policy; Institutional Framework; Business Environment; Infrastructure; Transport Connectivity; Access to Finance; Export Infrastructure; Trade Support; R&D Infrastructure; Export Diversification; and Growth Orientation.

The index was released by NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Dr. Rajiv Kumar, in the presence of NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, Department of Commerce Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam, and other dignitaries.

In the discussion of gaining export competitiveness, states in the Himalayan region, such as Sikkim and Meghalaya, still struggle to uplift their export potential even after sharing borders with neighbouring countries. Consequently,
their total performance has not improved since the first edition of the Export Preparedness Index.

The uniqueness of the Himalayan regions makes its challenges more appalling as these states have untapped potential but lag behind due to inherent constraints due to their geography. "States like Sikkim, Manipur, Mizoram can develop a
competitive advantage in certain products that help close trade borders with neighbouring countries" it says.

The report says their constraint remains the same, they lack basic infrastructure and do not have the strong business environment to support a developed export infrastructure.

This edition has shown that most of the ‘Coastal States’ are the best performers, with Gujarat as the top performer.

EPI 2021 brings out three major challenges to India’s export promotion. These are intra- and inter-regional differences in export infrastructure; weak trade support and growth orientation across states; and lack of R&D infrastructure to promote complex and unique exports.

The EPI’s primary goal is to instill competition among all Indian states (‘Coastal’, ‘Landlocked’, ‘Himalayan’, and ‘UTs/City-States’) to bring about favourable export-promotion policies, ease the regulatory framework to prompt subnational export promotion, create the necessary infrastructure for exports, and assist in identifying strategic recommendations for improving export competitiveness. It promotes competitive federalism and a fair contest among States/UTs.

The index can be a valuable tool for the government and policymakers in encouraging healthy competition among states and UTs, hence enhancing India’s standing in the global export market.

While releasing the report, NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Dr. Rajiv Kumar remarked that EPI 2021 will help the states and UTs in a long way to plan and execute sound export-oriented policies for ensuring a conducive export ecosystem, to make maximum utilization of their export potential.

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant emphasized that the second edition of the index will be a significant catalyst for promoting competitive federalism and a fair contest among states and UTs in the global export landscape.

During the event, Department of Commerce Secretary B.V.R. Subrahmanyam highlighted that there is also a need to work continuously on strengthening our manufacturing and infrastructure ecosystems at the state/UT levels to ensure robust growth of exports in the future.