Union Minister of Commerce & Industry Shri Piyush Goyal on Thursday made a strong case for a complete makeover of the SEEPZ (Santacruz Electronics Export Processing Zone) in Mumbai saying that it has $30 billion export potential.
Stating that the SEEPZ established in 1973, initially to promote electronics manufacturing in India, needs a complete makeover, Goyal said “Let's aim for transformational change and not incremental change. Let's bring back the vibrancy into SEEPZ like the earlier years.”
Citing the example of Surat Diamond Bourse, he urged SEEPZ to take help in terms of facilitation for this work. The Minister also cited the example of Rs 4,000 crore makeover of Pragati Maidan in Delhi.
Goyal said the Centre has already announced Rs 200 crore aid for internal expansion and refurbishment of one of India’s oldest Export Processing Zones.
Addressing the exporters and trade partners, Goyal said, “I am confident that with everyone's cooperation, SEEPZ can be made modern and world class. We can think of a public private partnership scheme whereby industry units who revamp their properties can be given exemption from rent revision for 10 years.”
The minister urged the exporters based at SEEPZ to collectively decide about making the Common Services Centre operational and revamping the SEEPZ premises and transforming some centres here into swanky new state-of-the-art centres for serving international customers. He also suggested that the India Trade Promotion Organization (ITPO) could have a 30,000 – 40,000 sq ft Exhibition Complex at SEEPZ to facilitate buyer-seller meets.
