The first Special Economic Zones (SEZ) Interactive Trade Meet for the fiscal year 2024-25 was organised by GJEPC SEZ Sub-Committee and convened by Mr. Suvankar Sen, Convener, SEZ Committee on 7th May, 2024. The agenda of the meeting was to apprise the members about various developments pertaining to infrastructure projects, FTAs, policy and discuss the underlying prospects and challenges for SEZ exporters.
Mr. Sen and Mr. Ravi Menon, CEO, Mega CFC updated the SEZ members that the Mega CFC in SEEPZ, which is providing services like CAD Rendering, 3D printing, CNC, etc., is set to commence full-fledged operations from 1st June 2024.
Among the other topics discussed were the progress of the India Jewellery Park construction work, the successful operations of the India Jewellery Exposition Centre (IJEX) facility in Dubai, and FTAs that have been successfully concluded and are in progress.
Mr. Sen informed that under the recently concluded FTAs (UAE CEPA, Australia ECTA and European EFTA), as per the recommendations of the GJEPC, tariffs on jewellery products (gold, silver, platinum, & imitation) across all the FTA partners have been eliminated for Indian exporters, opening up opportunities for enhancing exports.
Mr. K.K. Duggal, Director – Policy, GJEPC spoke about policy updates related to Transfer of Property, Duty Drawback, etc. Mr. Sen also shared the vast export opportunities that the e-commerce platform has started offering and challenges (logistics) thereof. He presented export trends of the SEZs, noting exports of plain gold jewellery, plain silver jewellery and platinum jewellery from SEZs have risen significantly, while exports of CPD, studded gold jewellery and polished lab-grown diamonds witnessed a dip.