Chennai: India is all set to achieve the target of at least one per cent of the world trade by 2007 well ahead of schedule, Mansingh, Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said on June 17.

"The country's share of world trade had already touched 0.8 per cent by the end of 2002, according to latest estimates", he said addressing a post-exim policy exporters' meet organised by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), southern region in Chennai.

He said the year 2002-03 was marked by major economic milestones like the country's exports crossing the $ 50 billion-mark to touch $ 51.7 by March 2003 by clocking a commendable 18 per cent growth.

Describing this as a very progressive indication, he said the main challenge however was to see that the transaction costs were brought down to the minimum, through the concerted efforts of the commerce ministry, exporters, the state governments and the industrial organisations at the local level, he said.

"Transaction costs will not come down unless the abuse of the facilities were minimised and leakage of revenues was plugged," he said.

Mansingh said that export was no longer the "baby of the commerce ministry" adding that the involvement of the state governments was critical for achieving the desired export growth in the present scenario.

PTI