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The Commerce and Industry Ministry's Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) on Thursday signed an MoU with global logistics service provider DHL to conduct capacity-building sessions, training, and workshops for making Indian MSMEs export-ready.

The initiative aimed at boosting e-commerce exports from the country, through the leveraging of 'District as Export Hubs' will cover 76 districts in three phases.

The goal is to promote and enable micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to explore the international markets through e-commerce channels. DGFT and DHL aim to bring together a team of knowledge experts to assist Indian MSME exporters in the identified districts through handholding sessions and develop a start-up kit for those wanting to export for the first time, according to an official statement.

John Pearson, Global CEO of DHL Express emphasised that DHL is the first international express operator to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT).

This partnership with the Central government will further solidify DHL's commitment to India.

Aligning with the Foreign Trade Policy 2023, in the past few months, DGFT has signed MoUs with Amazon India and Shiprocket, covering 20 and 16 districts, respectively.

These collaborations with e-commerce platforms and service providers have encouraged a series of outreach events by DGFT-Regional Authorities to onboard new exporters; promote first-time exporters, and handhold MSME producers to become exporters through cross-border e-commerce sales under the District as Export Hub initiative, the statement added.

During the MoU signing event, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal highlighted the importance of the e-commerce ecosystem, and pointed out the strides taken by India to create a digital infrastructure which can be leveraged to encourage MSMEs from rural India to connect to the world market.