Kanpur: Uttar Pradesh has achieved a significant milestone in its export performance, surpassing Rs2.01 lakh crore for the first time. This announcement was made on Wednesday by Alok Dwivedi, the joint director general of Foreign Trade in Kanpur. The continuous rise in exports reflects the state’s growing role in the national economy.
He said the state’s share in the country’s total merchandise exports had reached 5.2%, making Uttar Pradesh the fifth-largest exporting state in the country.
Addressing a national workshop on MSME development at HBTU campus, Dwivedi said Uttar Pradesh’s traditional handicrafts, textiles, leather goods, agro-products and MSME products had carved a distinct niche for themselves in international markets.
Various UP govt policies, including the Industrial Policy, MSME Policy-2022 and Leather Policy, were also discussed during the workshop.
Sunil Kumar, Joint Commissioner (Industries), Kanpur Division, said the division had historically been one of the state’s major industrial hubs and had significant potential for further growth. The workshop was organised jointly by the MSME-Development Office, Kanpur, under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India, and the Directorate of Industries and Enterprise Promotion, Uttar Pradesh, with the cooperation of various industrial organisations. He identified leather, textiles, plastics, engineering products and defence manufacturing among sectors with considerable scope for expansion, adding that government policies and facilities had contributed to the steady rise in the state’s exports. The workshop focused on improving awareness among MSME units about export opportunities, government procurement, industrial policies and intellectual property protection, while exploring avenues for expanding their presence in domestic and international markets.