The Basic Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals & Cosmetics Export Promotion Council (Chemexcil) has expressed strong reservations against the formation of a separate pharmaceutical export promotion council (Pharmexcil) in the country. The council maintains that the new council would prove to be a duplication of work and wants the industry to strengthen the existing council through better cooperation among existing industry/trade associations in the pharmaceutical industry sector.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Satish Wagh, chairman Chemexcil opined that the formation of another council would only help add more confusion in the minds of overseas buyers. “Instead of fragmenting the institution for individual product group, a concerted effort should be made to strengthen the Chemexcil, which has over the years established its strong presence in the international market,” he said.

According to him, Chemexcil has realized the importance of decentralization and prompt decision-making and is in the process of getting its bylaws modified to suit the current needs. “Chemexcil has geographically spread its network through its regional offices at Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. Each of these offices has a regional chairman who will look into the problems of the exporters. The regional committees are delegated with enough powers so as to promptly attend to all the problems of the member exporters in their respective regions,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion SK Jindal, regional chairman, Chemexcil claimed that majority of small and medium scale exporters are not in favour of a new council and would continue with Chemexcil even if Pharmexcil comes into being. He said that Chemexcil was willing to accommodate and cooperate with any other industry association for the sake of export growth.

The council is to have the first meeting of its newly announced Ayurvedic Panel at Hyderabad on February 10. Chemexcil expects about 2000 new memberships from traditional drug industry once the Ayurvedic Panel is fully operational. Currently the council has about 7000 members.

Anil Katyal, Lalit Jain, Subach Majithia and BB Datta represented Chemexcil at the press conference. Shipra Biswas from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry was also part of the programme.