Amazon India has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bengal government to promote e-commerce exports.

The initiative, announced on the second day of the Bengal Global Business Summit in Calcutta, is in line with the state’s ambitious target to double exports by the next decade. Total exports from Bengal stood at $13 billion, or Rs 1 lakh crore, growing at a CAGR of 6.1 per cent.

The tie-up with Amazon stands out as it takes a leaf out of India’s newly launched foreign trade policy which calls for $200 billion of e-commerce export by 2030. The central policy aims at setting up dedicated e-commerce export hubs solely focusing on e-commerce.

While the national plan is still in the works, the Bengal government is taking the initiative to set up e-commerce export hubs. While the details of the state project will be worked out, the central plan envisaged that hubs would be equipped with warehousing facilities to help aggregators in easy stocking, customs clearance and returns processing.

Sources suggest that Amazon would lend its expertise to the state as and when the latter develops such hubs.

The announcement of a tie-up with Amazon comes a day after the state formally placed a logistics policy which aims to facilitate exports.

Earlier this year, the state had also formulated a new export policy. Sanjay Budhia, who is the chairman of CII national committee on Exim and international trade and logistic committee of BGBS, said Bengal is a sourcing destination for 197 countries.

Speaking at a session on international trade and logistics at BGBS, Budhia said Bengal has set an objective to boost export by new market penetration, product development and creating enabling infrastructure to boost exports.

ITC app

Sanjiv Puri, chairman of ITC, formally launched ITC’s metamarket for advanced agriculture and rural services (MAARS), a super app and phygital ecosystem, in Bengal.

The company aspires to reach 5 lakh farmers with 100 farmer producer organisations. The app provides advisory service, market access, and financial services to farmers. ITC mainly works with potato farmers in Bengal.