Even as the separate export promotion council for pharmaceuticals is certain to be a reality, the central government has announced the formation of yet another council for export promotion, which can be of help to the drugs and chemical-manufacturing units in the EOUs of the country. Though not an exclusive council for pharmaceuticals, the new council, the Export Promotion Council for EOUs, will cater to the needs of all units functioning in EOUs and Special Economic Zones (SEZs).

The EPC for EOUs, to be headquartered in Delhi, would specifically cater to the needs of EOU/SEZ sector which has over 2300 operational EOUs/SEZ units spreading all over the country providing direct employment to over 7 lakh people and has a credible achievement of 13 per cent share in the national exports.

Other than chemical and pharmaceuticals, the EOUs/SEZ units cover all major industrial sectors like textiles, garments & yarn; food & agro products, electronics & software, engineering, minerals, granites etc.

The export earnings of this sector in 2001-02 was Rs. 28,000 crore registering a growth of 14.66 per cent over the previous year and compares very favourably with the national export growth of only 2.1 per cent in the same period.

The EOU sector has shown a double-digit continuous growth much more than that of the national exports. This sector has proved its uniqueness and the future direction of this country in exporting manufacturing goods through value addition using state-of-the art technology.

In a joint press release, R. Veeramani, Chairman, EPC for EOUs and Sharad Jaipuria, Vice-Chairman, EPC for EOUs welcomed the formation of EPC for EOUs and said that the Council with the support of EOUs/SEZ Sector has an ambitious road map to achieve and contribute 25 per cent of the national export through manufacturing exports by the year 2007.

"In the next couple of years this sector is looking for achieving 10 billion US dollars exports. This sector fully deserved an EPC because of its performance, vast membership, regional and sectoral spread and employment provided. We are happy that after two decades of operation of the EOU Scheme, finally the EPC for EOUs has started functioning," they stated.

The Council has plans to organise seminars on issues pertaining to EOUs in different states. To start with, the Council plans to organise seminars at Hyderabad, Jaipur and Delhi.