Kanpur: Uttar Pradesh’s exports have been rising steadily, with the state crossing the Rs2.01 lakh crore milestone for the first time, joint director general of Foreign Trade, Kanpur, Alok Dwivedi said on Wednesday.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. 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.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.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.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.Various UP govt policies, including the Industrial Policy, MSME Policy-2022 and Leather Policy, were also discussed during the workshop.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.
