New Delhi: A 29 per cent growth in imports during November 2002 took the sheen off a sustained recovery in exports, which clocked an impressive increase of 16 per cent at 4.13 billion dollars.

Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Shourie said the growth in exports was commendable, but warned that the industry still has a long way to go in improving its competitiveness, particularly in comparison with countries like China.

As per provisional trade data released on January 1, exports during the period April- November 2002 registered an impressive 15.65 per cent growth even as imports posted 14.25 per cent increase during the same period.

The increase in imports during the period April-November could be attributed to the 21.09 per cent increase in oil imports which were valued at $ 11.72 billion against $ 9.68 billion in the corresponding period a year earlier.

Accordingly, the trade deficit for the month of November as also for the period April-November was higher at $ 1.22 billion and $ 6.24 billion respectively.

Commenting on the export performance, Shourie said, "There is still a long way to go in improving our competitiveness, we are not focussing enough on that."

Referring to the growth in low technology areas achieved by China, he said Indian industries need to realise the importance of a "marriage between technology and traditional industries".

While India has demonstrated its strength in new areas like information technology (IT) and media, in the traditional industries there is not much effort in upgrading technology or in improving designs, Shourie said.

He commended efforts being made by institutes like Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, which were working on innovative methods to improve designs in traditional sectors like glassware or the 'chikan' work (thread work).

Emphasising the need to implement decisions already taken, Shourie cited the instances of the Commerce Ministry where some of the Exim policy announcements made in March 2002 had still not been notified.

As per the provisional data, exports in November were valued at $ 4.13 billion, compared to $ 3.57 billion in the corresponding period a year earlier.

At the same time, imports in the month under consideration were valued at $ 5.36 billion compared to $ 4.15 billion in November 2001.

Cumulative exports during April-November 2002 were valued at $ 32.86 billion compared to $ 28.41 billion in the corresponding period a year earlier.

India has set a 12 per cent export growth target for the current fiscal. Exports last fiscal had suffered a setback as a fallout of September 11 and had registered a negative growth of around two per cent.

PTI