Amazon pledges enabling $80 bn exports from India by 2030; partners DPIIT

Amit Agarwal, SVP, Emerging Markets, Amazon, announced the commitment at the company's annual 'Smbhav Summit'.

New Delhi: E-commerce giant Amazon on Tuesday announced its commitment to enable $80 billion in cumulative exports from India by 2030 and said it has partnered with DPIIT to establish India as a global manufacturing hub.

Amit Agarwal, Senior Vice President for Emerging Markets at Amazon, made the announcements during the company's annual 'Smbhav Summit'.

"Motivated by the progress that we made in driving exports out of India...we are quadrupling our focus in India... we are going to advance our commitment to enable $80 billion in exports by 2030," Agarwal said.

Amazon had earlier pledged to digitising 10 million micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), achieving $20 billion in cumulative exports from India, and creating 2 million jobs in the country by 2025.

"We are humbled to share that we have hit our pledge to digitise 10 million small businesses one year ahead of time and have enabled over 12 million small businesses to become a part of the digital economy. We have enabled nearly $13 billion in cumulative exports and have created nearly 1.4 million direct and indirect jobs in India," Amazon India Country Manager Samir Kumar said.

Currently, Amazon accounts for approximately 3 per cent of India's business-to-consumer (B2C) exports, excluding petroleum products, Agarwal said.

He also announced that Amazon's Smbhav Venture Fund has signed an agreement with DPIIT (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) to accelerate the government's key priority of establishing India as a global manufacturing hub, earmarking $120 million to invest in manufacturing startups.

"We will make that accessible to startups who are investing in ideas related to domestic manufacturing and creating brands out of India," he said.

This marks the expansion of the fund to a $350 million fund, according to a company statement.

Amazon is working closely with the government, countless Indian small businesses and direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands, along with other important stakeholders to achieve this goal, it said.

It has been working with the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) to leverage the 'Districts as Export Hubs (DEH)' initiative, which aims to enhance MSME exports throughout India, the statement added.

Furthermore, Agarwal announced the launch of the company's logistics services --Amazon Shipping and Amazon Freight -- for businesses and D2C brands across India.

Amazon Freight provides full truckload freight services for both intra-city and inter-city transports, while Amazon Shipping offers last-mile B2C parcel deliveries.