New Delhi: Commerce minister Suresh Prabhu on Wednesday said he is  looking at  measures to rev up country's exports in a “shortest possible time”. The minister said he will also strive to address the issues facing exporters post GST.

Mr Prabhu said exports to GDP ratio of India has to improve substantially as the outbound shipments have a great ability to generate economic activity. 

“Therefore, exports to GDP ratio has to rise... So we are at a crash intervention sort of a thing. We are trying to work out what to be done to promote exports in a shortest possible time which includes issues coming up because of the GST,” he said.

He said the ministry is working on the support measures “which can facilitate quick increase in exports (both in terms of) volume and value”.

The commerce ministry is expected to announce incentives in the review of the foreign trade policy, which is scheduled to be released next month.

India’s export growth slowed to an eight-month low of 3.94 per cent in July, while the trade deficit widened to $11.44 billion on account of high gold imports.

Mr Prabhu also said that domestic investments by the private sector has not increased considerably and one of the reasons for that is inadequate capacity utilisation. “Unless domestic demand picks up... exports can fill in that gap,” Mr Prabhu said. 

He said the ministry will work on several other fronts, including bringing in new industrial policy, improving logistics for exporters, agri export policy and integrating into the global supply chains. 

The DIPP has floated a discussion paper on futuristic industrial policy 2017.  “Global supply chains are now become a reality. India is part of that in auto components and generic formulations,” he said adding these chains offer a great opportunity for Indian exports as well as upgrading capacities in terms of technology.