Amazon working with govt agencies to push MSME exports in India

Amazon India’s Global Trade Director Bhupen Wakankar talks to businessline about the company’s growth trajectory, partnerships with government and support provided to MSMEs Amazon Global Selling, the e-commerce giant’s export platform for micro, small and medium enterprises, is collaborating with the Ministry of Commerce and Director General of Foreign Trade to further accelerate sales from districts that have good export potential.

“What we have done over the last two years is specifically start forming partnerships at all levels,” Bhupen Wakankar, Director, Global Trade, Amazon India, told businessline. It is collaborating with the central and state government, trade bodies, export promotion councils, and industry bodies such as CII and FICCI as well as logistics, service providers, banks and VCs for funding.

Amazon India recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the commerce ministry to deepen engagement in the top 75 districts in the country that account for 80 per cent of its exports.

It is also engaging with the DGFT which has an on-the-ground presence and thorough tie-ups with local export promotion councils. “We want to specifically drive awareness, and education of E-commerce exports. So we’re going to go at a district level, and leverage the infrastructure…”, he added.

Amazon Global Selling currently has over 1.25 lakh exporters on its platform which has surpassed $8 billion in revenue since its launch in 2015 and is rapidly approaching its target of $20 billion by 2025. Exporters have access to over 200 countries through Amazon’s 18 international websites.