Amazon, WBIDC sign MoU to boost exports from West Bengal

As part of this MoU, Amazon and WBIDC will co-create capacity building sessions, training and workshops for thousands of MSMEs across the state including Kolkata, North 24 Paraganas, South 24 Paraganas, Howrah, Hooghly amongst others. The MoU was signed in presence of Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal, Vandana Yadav, principal secretary, industry, commerce and enterprises, government of West Bengal and Amazon leaders at the Bengal Global Business Summit 2023.

Amazon and WBIDC will focus on educating MSMEs on e-commerce exports and enabling them to sell to customers across the world. Amazon will also enable access to a host of third-party service providers that MSMEs can engage with to avail services like imaging, digital cataloguing of their products, tax advisory amongst others. In addition, Amazon will offer dedicated account management services to MSMEs to launch and manage their business on its ecommerce exports program called Amazon Global Selling. With this programme Indian entrepreneurs can build their e-commerce exports businesses and global brands.

“With the new logistics policy and the exports policy, we aim to establish West Bengal as the global trading hub and double the state’s exports over the next decade. The West Bengal government has invested a lot in setting up dedicated export promotion committees in key districts and export facilitation cells to boost exports from the state. We are now furthering our vision and WBIDC will set up dedicated e-commerce export hubs in key districts. Our partnership with Amazon will help exporters across the state become more aware and equipped to tap into the global exports opportunity,” Raju Mishra, joint secretary, WBIDC, said.

“As part of this MoU, Amazon would take up training and onboarding of artisans, craftsmen and small exporters on their global selling platform to promote e-commerce exports in West Bengal,” Yadav said.

“We firmly believe that widespread adoption of technology will be pivotal in unlocking export opportunities for countless MSMEs across West Bengal and India. This resonates in the recently introduced foreign trade policy which includes a dedicated chapter on e-commerce exports and foresees e-commerce exports contributing $200-300 billion in exports from India by 2030. Under the guidance and leadership of the chief minister, we look forward to working with WBIDC and play our part in helping Indian MSMEs and entrepreneurs from the state create strong global brands. As we progress towards our goal of enabling $20 billion in cumulative e-commerce exports from India by 2025, we remain dedicated to making exports simpler and more accessible for businesses of all sizes,” Bhupen Wakankar, director global trade, Amazon India, said.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RR)