Turmoil in Ukraine to impact Indian exports: EEPC

Political turmoil in Ukraine involving the Russian Federation may have a negative fallout for Indian exports, engineering exporters' body EEPC India said.

"The current turmoil will give a setback to the recent efforts to promote exports to the former members of the erstwhile Soviet Union," EEPC India Chairman Anupam Shah said in a statement.

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He said the political problem in the region is not a good news for the Indian exporters, who in any case had apprehensions in reaching out to the resource-rich Central Asian countries.

"Though Ukraine does not regard itself as member of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), it has a geographical rub-off with other erstwhile members of the former Soviet Union.

"While the Indian government along with the industry chambers has been taking a lot of initiatives to promote trade in the region, the present developments do not augur well for trade," Shah said.

The commerce ministry along with different chambers has planned to organise 14 India shows in the next 14 months in key countries of CIS to regain significant trade ground in the former member states of the erstwhile USSR.

"India's trade with erstwhile USSR used to account for 26 percent of the country's total trade which has now been reduced to less than 1 percent. The problems in Ukraine have surfaced at a time when the region had emerged among fastest growing regions of the world along with Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), Latin America and Africa," he said.

Central Asian countries are quite rich in natural resources like oil, natural gas, metals and minerals. They are also a useful source of several other raw materials, Shah added.